The Thistle Archive

Media report

12-Mar-2011, ptfc.co.uk

A trip to face the league leaders is always something to treat with a degree of trepidation but this afternoon at Stark’s Park Thistle ignored the lofty league position of their opponents to recorded a thoroughly merited 2-0 victory. Manager Ian McCall made two changes to the side that defeated Queen of the South 3-1 in midweek. Injury ruled out Bryan Hodge while Iain Flannigan dropped to the bench. Jackie McNamara and Chris Erskine were the players that came into the starting eleven and both would big roles in the eventual victory.

Thistle were positive right from the start of this game and the Raith goal was under serious threat as early as the third minute. Paul Paton’s corner from the left was met by the head of Ryan McGowan, who had an excellent game in the centre of the Thistle midfield, and McNeil did well to tip McGowan’s header over the bar. McGowan was close again in the 12th minute when his shot, after Raith had struggled to clear the ball, from the edge of the box was deflected for a corner. Thistle were playing some excellent football with Raith looking decidedly second best from very early on and in the 15th minute a magnificent Paddy Boyle corner just required a touch from a Thistle player to produce a goal as the ball travelled right across the home six yard box. All that Thistle’s performance had lacked in the first quarter of the match was a goal and Ryan McGowan was unfortunate to see his well struck shot fly straight into the waiting arms of a grateful home goalkeeper. The quality of delivery of crosses from wide areas from Thistle was excellent and Chris Erskine’s cross from the left in the 33rd minute was just begging for a touch to bring a goal but Thistle were again frustrated. Chris Erskine was in one of those moods where he almost impossible to play against and in the 38th minute he was dumped on the ground right on the edge of the Rovers box but Paddy Boyle’s free kick that followed struck the wall and Thistle were unable to go into the dressing room at full-time with the lead that they so clearly merited.

That all changed just four minutes into the second half. In the first half Thistle had been unfortunate not to see a number of excellent corner kicks produce a goal but when Paul Paton’s corner from the left came over in the 49th minute Kris Doolan’s downward header found the back of the net. Although the home side were a tad more threatening in the second half than they had been in the first they really only had one clear cut chance all game. That arrived in the

60th minute when Allan Walker found himself unmarked at the back post and his first time volley produced an excellent save from Scott Fox. Fox once again demonstrated the value that exists in having a top quality goalkeeper. An equaliser at this point would have been massively undeserved as Thistle continued to look the much the better side. In the 65th minute Chris Erskine was close to doubling the Thistle lead but McNeil was equal to his shot, the Raith keeper at full stretch to tip the ball over the bar. Two minutes later it was Martin Grehan, who linked up with Kris Doolan to great affect throughout the game, that was close to increasing the Thistle lead. He was able to flick a cross from the left goalwards and it was good fortune as much as anything that saw McNeil in the right place to save. A triple substitution did little to alter the flow of the game and in the 74th minute an excellent cross field pass from Paul Paton was collected by Kris Doolan and Thistle’s leading scorer with twelve to his name for the season now was only denied a 13th goal of the season by another fine save from Andy McNeil. Thistle were comfortably dealing with Raith’s

infrequent thrusts towards their goal while remaining a potent threat themselves and they finally made the points safe and completed an excellent week right on the 90th minute. Paddy Boyle, one of so many candidates for the man of the match award, burst into the Raith box and his powerful finish for once left the home keeper with no chance of saving. The Thistle fans were in full voice at the full-time whistle and who could blame them after witnessing probably Thistle’s best performance of the season.

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