13th Dec 2014 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0 Partick Thistle 4 (SPFL Premiership - game 16)

matches:2014-15: ← 25game 2627 →

	John Hughes	Alan Archibald	37y, 5m, 0d

		Jordan McMillan; Gary Fraser
		Jake Carroll; James Craigen

		Ryan Stevenson (1-0, 12 mins); Ryan Stevenson (2-0, 40 mins); Gary Fraser (3-0, 49 mins); Conrad Balatoni (4-0, 57 mins)
		Christie Elliott (1-0, 12 mins); Gary Fraser (2-0, 40 mins); Ryan Stevenson (3-0, 49 mins); Stuart Bannigan (4-0, 57 mins)
Gary Warren		Christie Elliott

James Vincent (Aaron Doran, 64 mins); Ross Draper (Ryan Christie, 64 mins)		Kallum Higginbotham (Steven Lawless, 74 mins); Ryan Stevenson (Nathan Eccleston, 80 mins); Stuart Bannigan (David Wilson [ii], 81 mins)

	Dean Brill	Paul Gallacher	35y, 3m, 27d
	David Raven	Stephen O'Donnell	22y, 7m, 2d
	Graeme Shinnie	Jordan McMillan	26y, 1m, 27d
	James Vincent	Dan Seaborne	27y, 9m, 8d
	Gary Warren	Conrad Balatoni	23y, 10m, 16d
	Josh Meekings	Abdul Osman	27y, 9m, 16d
	Billy McKay	Stuart Bannigan	22y, 2m, 26d
	Ross Draper	Gary Fraser	20y, 5m, 11d
	Marley Watkins	Ryan Stevenson	30y, 3m, 19d
	Greg Tansey	Christie Elliott	23y, 6m, 17d
	Danny Williams	Kallum Higginbotham	25y, 5m, 28d

			25y, 11m, 15d

	Ryan Esson	Scott Fox	27y, 5m, 15d
	Aaron Doran	James Craigen	23y, 8m, 15d
	Nick Ross	Steven Lawless	23y, 8m, 1d
	future Jag Danny Devine	Nathan Eccleston	23y, 11m, 13d
	Carl Tremarco	David Wilson [ii]	20y, 3m, 7d
	Ryan Christie	Liam Lindsay	19y, 2m, 1d
	Liam Polworth	Declan McDaid	19y, 0m, 21d

notes

SPFL/SCB/SB/ICT/ICT's twitter don't mention Gary Warren (ICT) yellow. PTFC & PTFC's twitter say he got booked for protesting goal.

TTA report

Elliott's cross was met by Stevenson at the near post (12) then he shot from inside the “D“ for 2-0 (40). A brilliant save denied Seaborne soon after. A 40-yarder by ICT was ruled out for off-side before Fraser and Balatoni's 6-yard headers (49 and 57). 2nd top ITC were well beaten. Outstanding away win.

Media report

13-Dec-2014, ptfc.co.uk

Thistle made the long trip up the A9 to face an Inverness Caledonian Thistle side that have had a great start to the season and remained unbeaten at home since April. Thistle manager, Alan Archibald, made two changes from the starting eleven that had drawn with Kilmarnock, Jordan McMillan replaced Jake Carroll and Gary Fraser came in to replace James Craigen in conditions which could only be described as raw.

Thistle started brightly pushing up and pressuring Caley on the ball and a great crossfield ball from Fraser found Stephen O’Donnell but his cross just evaded all of the Jags players in the box. In the sixth minute Gallacher had to look lively to stop McKay as Caley broke at pace from a Jags corner and showed one of the reasons why their season has started so strongly. The home side should really have gone ahead three minutes later when Balatoni slipped allowing Watkins to go through one on one with Paul Gallacher. Luckily for the visitors the Caley man slid his shot wide of both keeper and the far post and the scores remained level. Thistle made the home side pay for their spurned chances when, in the 11th minute, they produced a brilliant team goal. McMillan found Bannigan who in turn found Stevenson, he knocked a pass wide right to O’Donnell who sent Elliott clear down the right hand side. Finding himself in space the Thistle winger squared a great ball across the box and there was the onrushing Stevenson sliding in to poke the ball home at thefront post. Great work from the former Hearts man having continued his run from the halfway line to make it 1-0. There was nearly a second for Thistle immediately when Bannigan collected a loose pass and found Higginbotham straight away, the squared pass to Stevenson was well placed but the scorer of the Jags' first goal could only put his shot over the bar. The Highlanders certainly weren't giving up easily though and defence and keeper both had to look sharp when first Warren headed over before Gallacher did well to save a Tansey shot one handed down to his right. Despite the ICT pressure it was Thistle who would strike again and, in the 40th minute, it was 2-0 to the visitors. Thistle won the ball in midfield and, when the ball found Fraser in space, he squared across the 18 yard box perfectly for Stevenson to sidefoot home powerfully and send the away fans wild. Gallacher had to be on hand again though to keep out another stinging Tansey effort before Stevenson, absolutely full of confidence, saw his effort deflected for a corner. The resulting corner, taken by Bannigan, was met perfectly by Seaborne's head but Brill pulled off an unbelievable fingertip save onto the post to keep it at 2-0 as the first half ended.

As the teams re-emerged for the second 45 it was Thistle who would start the stronger. Stevenson did brilliantly on the right hand side and made space for a peach of a left foot cross which was met by Fraser’s, who had made a perfectly timed run into the box, and the young midfielder powerfully headed home via the underside of the bar from six yards to make it 3-0. The home side tried to bounce back and a Warren shot was brilliantly tipped round the post by Gallacher but the momentum remained with the visitors. There was a bit of controversy from the resulting corner though, as Thistle cleared to Raven 35 yards out who hit a screamer that had Gallacher beaten and seemingly Inverness on the score sheet. It wasn't to be though as McKay, having deemed to have been interfering with play while in an offside position, was flagged and the goal was disallowed. Stevenson then forced Brill into another great save from a shot on the turn and earned the Jags a corner as he strived for an ultimately illusive hat-trick. There was more to come from Thistle though and the lead was extended when Bannigan, who was magnificent all afternoon, produced a perfect cross for Balatoni at the back post. Conrad created the yard for himself that was required and headed home to make it 4-0 for Thistle and spark wild scenes of celebration behind the goal for the Jags fans. Caley did not offer much in reply an the final chance of the match fell to Thistle when an O’Donnell ball into the box found substitute Eccleston who turned and fired a great shot which Brill again brilliantly saved. As the referee blew for full time it was the small number of Jags fans in the stand who were celebrating a comprehensive victory in the highlands. An all round terrific team performance and not a failure on the pitch.

FUN IN THE HIGHLANDS

● 26-year-old Jordan McMillan plays his last game for Thistle.

● Thistle win a second consecutive competitive game versus Inverness Caledonian Thistle, the H2H joint-record.

● Thistle's record margin of victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

● Kris Doolan misses out after 18 consecutive appearances as he's "on-call" for the birth of his baby!

● Abdul Osman and Steven Lawless maintain their 100% appearance record, now with 20 competitive match appearances each this season.

● Abdul Osman moves on to 1,830 non-stop minutes.

● Thistle register 23 games in a row with a different outcome.

● Archie wins his 13th game as manager in the Top Flight and joins Scot Symon. Next target: "The Committee" who masterminded 18 wins over 100 years ago.

● Archie's Jags become only the second side in our history to win by a 4 goal away margin vs. a Top 2 side in the Top Flight. The only previous occurence was back on Saturday 28th April 1956 when we won 4-0 at Pittodrie against second placed Aberdeen.

● Thistle win two games in the Top Flight by a 4 goal margin for the first time since 1977-78: Clydebank [a] W4-0; St Mirren [h] W5-0. You have to rewind back to 1955-56 to find a greater number of occurrences, when we managed the feat 3 times: Stirling Albion [h] W6-1; Queen of the South [h] W9-1; Aberdeen [a] W4-0. The ultimate record would be 6 occurences in 1926-27!

● Ryan and Conrad bag their first League goals of the 2014-15 campaign and become the 12th and 13th men to appear in that particular chart - quite a total after just 16 games. This is almost a record - 15 men had registered by this stage in 1957-58. All of this is even more remarkable when you consider the average League spread for a whole season is only 12! The all-time record spread was 18 different League scorers in season 1999-00.

ongoing sequences:

● 21 consecutive competitive appearances for Steven Lawless, 10th May 2014 to date. (Longest run since: Christie Elliott - 22 games, 19th Apr 2014 to 29th Nov 2014. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

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