11th Jan 2014 Partick Thistle 3 Ross County 3 (SPFL Premiership - game 21)

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matches:2013-14: ← 30game 3132 →

36y, 5m, 29d	Alan Archibald	Derek Adams

Christie Elliott
Stuart Bannigan

Lyle Taylor (1-1, 28 mins); Lyle Taylor (2-1, 38 mins); Steven Lawless (3-1, 47 mins)		Filip Kiss (0-1, 22 mins); Ben Gordon (3-2, 50 mins); Filip Kiss (3-3, 76 mins)
Steven Lawless (1-1, 28 mins); Aaron Taylor-Sinclair (2-1, 38 mins); Kallum Higginbotham (3-1, 47 mins)		Richard Brittain (0-1, 22 mins); none (3-2, 50 mins); Richard Brittain (3-3, 76 mins)
Stephen O'Donnell; Aaron Muirhead; Gabriel Piccolo		Filip Kiss
		Stuart Kettlewell (@ 3-3, 86 mins)
Christie Elliott (Ross Forbes, 75 mins); Steven Lawless (Kris Doolan, 80 mins)		Michael Tidser (Alex Cooper, 79 mins); Gary Glen (Stuart Kettlewell, 84 mins); Filip Kiss (Rocco Quinn, 89 mins)

26y, 6m, 14d	Scott Fox	Michael Fraser
21y, 8m, 0d	Stephen O'Donnell	Ben Gordon
22y, 9m, 3d	Aaron Taylor-Sinclair	Scott Boyd former Jag
22y, 11m, 15d	Conrad Balatoni	Filip Kiss
23y, 4m, 12d	Aaron Muirhead	Richard Brittain
24y, 2m, 27d	Gabriel Piccolo	Michael Tidser
22y, 9m, 14d	James Craigen	Gary Glen
22y, 8m, 30d	Steven Lawless	Brian McLean
23y, 9m, 13d	Lyle Taylor	Graham Carey
22y, 7m, 16d	Christie Elliott	Jordan Slew
24y, 6m, 27d	Kallum Higginbotham	Evangelos Oikonomou

23y, 5m, 17d

34y, 4m, 26d	Paul Gallacher	Mark Brown
27y, 1m, 0d	Kris Doolan	Stuart Kettlewell
24y, 10m, 8d	Ross Forbes	Branislav Micic
25y, 2m, 26d	Jordan McMillan	Rocco Quinn
19y, 6m, 9d	Gary Fraser	Melvin de Leeuw
28y, 4m, 20d	John Baird	Alex Cooper
19y, 4m, 5d	David Wilson [ii]	Kevin Luckassen

TTA report

County scored with their 1st shot on goal (22) but a strong drive and a bullet header by Taylor (28 and 38) gave Thistle a deserved lead. Lawless' drive (47) should have made it safe but they were pushed back and very poor defending led to goals (50 and 76). O'Donnell's drive in added time almost won it. County had a man sent of (86).

Media report

11-Jan-2014, ptfc.co.uk

After the dust had settled on an entertaining game Thistle were left still looking for their first home league win of the seasons despite having led the match at one point by three goals to one. Coming on the back of victory over Hearts at Tynecastle manager Alan Archibald made just one change to his team from that game. The suspended Stuart Bannigan was forced to sit the game out with Christie Elliott taking a place in the starting eleven. Gary Fraser meantime had to content himself with a seat on the bench on his Firhill return.

The game’s first chance came in the 5th minute with Thistle a shade unfortunate not to establish an early lead. A dangerous Piccolo cross from the right hand side had only partially been cleared when Kallum Higginbotham saw his shot well saved by Fraser in the County goal. Although there wasn’t a great deal of action in front of either goal, though Conrad Balatoni did miss a glorious opportunity with a header, it was Thistle that were having the better of the early exchanges but they found themselves a goal down in the 22nd minute; County opening the scoring through Filip Kiss with their first effort on goal of the game. Against a side that over the years have been adept a defending a one goal lead at Firhill a quick response was required and Lyle Taylor, on his home debut for Thistle, provided that response lashing home the equaliser just six minutes after Thistle had fallen behind. County though were close to regaining their lead in the 34th minute when Richard Brittain aimed a free kick from wide on the left to Thistle’s near post and was nearly rewarded by the ball squeezing in. It was Thistle, however, that would head into the dressing room at half-time with the lead.

Lyle Taylor had already see a shot blocked after being set up by a delightful through ball from Steven Lawless but he was celebrating the third goal of his short Thistle career so far in the 38th minute when he bulleted home a header from an excellent Taylor-Sinclair cross. Just over a minute of the second half had been played when Thistle looked to have taken a huge step towards all three points. Taylor and Elliott combined to set up Steven Lawless and he calmly stroked the ball home from 8 yards. This time it was County that provided an almost instant response. Conrad Balatoni had headed clear from the Thistle goal line but the ball dropped to Ben Gordon and he was able to find the back of the Thistle net. What had been looking as potentially a relatively comfortable second half for Thistle was now anything but. Thistle started to drop deeper and deeper as County, who won an increasingly large number of free kicks, increased the pressure on a nervous looking Thistle defence. Richard Brittain saw one of those free kicks just creep wide of Scott Fox’s left hand post and the same player sent an effort over the bar after he had enjoyed the break of the ball off a Thistle defender. There were 15 minutes of the game remaining when County did grab an equaliser. Filip Kiss was left with just Scott Fox to beat and he calmly and confidently knocked the ball past the Thistle keeper and into the back of the net. Thistle sent on Kris Doolan in an attempt to once again establish an advantage and he was quickly involved in the action but at the right hand corner of the County box the ball just wouldn’t sit up for him. Minutes later the same player turned sharply at the edge of the box only to see his shot blocked by a defender. In the 84th minute County sent on Stewart Kettlewell but the midfielder lasted just one minute 14 seconds on the pitch before receiving a straight red card for his challenge on Ross Forbes. With a man advantage in the closing minutes it was Thistle that looked the more likely side to snatch a late winner and they did nearly grab a spectacular winning goal with the game in the third minute of injury time when Stephen O’Donnell’s effort flew just narrowly wide of target.

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