21st Jan 2015 Partick Thistle 5 Hamilton Academical 0 (SPFL Premiership - game 21)

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matches:2014-15: ← 30game 3132 →

37y, 6m, 8d	Alan Archibald	Martin Canning
		Frankie McAvoy

Christie Elliott; Freddy Frans; James Craigen; Kallum Higginbotham
Dale Keenan; Conrad Balatoni; Stuart Bannigan; Declan McDaid

Kris Doolan (1-0, 29 mins); Kris Doolan (2-0, 44 mins); Kris Doolan (3-0, 60 mins); Kris Doolan (4-0, 62 mins); Nathan Eccleston (5-0, 89 mins)
Ryan Stevenson (1-0, 29 mins); Steven Lawless (2-0, 44 mins); Steven Lawless (3-0, 60 mins); Stephen O'Donnell (4-0, 62 mins); none (5-0, 89 mins)
Kallum Higginbotham		Darian MacKinnon; Ali Crawford

Abdul Osman (Sean Welsh, 69 mins); Kallum Higginbotham (Declan McDaid, 72 mins); Kris Doolan (Nathan Eccleston, 80 mins)		Mikey Devlin (Craig Watson, HT); Mickael Antoine-Curier (Eamonn Brophy, 65 mins)

35y, 5m, 5d	Paul Gallacher	Michael McGovern
22y, 8m, 10d	Stephen O'Donnell	Stephen Hendrie future Jag
23y, 7m, 26d	Christie Elliott	Mikey Devlin
27y, 10m, 16d	Dan Seaborne	Grant Gillespie
26y, 0m, 18d	Freddy Frans	Dougie Imrie
27y, 10m, 25d	Abdul Osman	Jon Routledge
23y, 9m, 24d	James Craigen	Ali Crawford
30y, 4m, 28d	Ryan Stevenson	Darian MacKinnon future Jag
28y, 1m, 10d	Kris Doolan	Anthony Andreu
23y, 9m, 9d	Steven Lawless	Jesús García Tena
25y, 7m, 6d	Kallum Higginbotham	Mickael Antoine-Curier

26y, 10m, 5d

20y, 9m, 2d	Scott Basalaj	Darren Hill
24y, 10m, 6d	Sean Welsh	Craig Watson
23y, 11m, 25d	Conrad Balatoni	Louis Longridge
24y, 0m, 22d	Nathan Eccleston	Eamonn Brophy
20y, 4m, 15d	David Wilson [ii]	Greg Docherty
19y, 1m, 30d	Declan McDaid	Ali El-Zubaidi
20y, 6m, 25d	Dale Keenan	Danny Redmond

TTA report

5 goals, 5-star. Apart from counter attacks through the middle early on, Thistle bossed high-flying Hamilton. 4-goal Doolan (tap-in, 29, excellent turn and shot, 44, a wicked back-heel, 60 and a glorious header (62) stole the show. Lawless hit the bar, Eccleston got the 5th (89) for a memorable win.

Media report

21-Jan-2015, ptfc.co.uk

Thistle welcomed a Hamilton Accies side still flying high in the top half of the table with the Jags looking to bounce back from the disappointing result up in Perth. Manager, Alan Archibald, was able to make changes from the side that lost to Saints with Freddy Frans, Christie Elliott, James Craigen and Kallum Higginbotham all returning to the starting line-up. Elliott lined up at left back as Dale Keenan dropped to the bench alongside Conrad Balatoni. Kiwi, Scott Basalaj, took his place on the bench instead of the injured Scott Fox. There was also a welcome return for club captain Sean Welsh who also featured among the Thistle subs.

The home side were the first to threaten when a brilliant piece of skill from Ryan Stevenson, taking a high ball on his knee, allowed him to send a first time pass behind the Accies defence for Higginbotham to burst through. Unfortunately for the returning winger, the Accies defence recovered, and Higginbotham went down under a challenge. Accies’ Crawford fired a couple of shots just wide of Gallacher’s post as the visitors looked to catch the Jags defence on the hop. Thistle looked dangerous throughout the opening skirmishes though and Stephen O’Donnell worked himself some space on the right before cutting inside on to his left foot. Unfortunately for the in demand right back his shot was easily saved by McGovern. It was Accies that would strike next catching Thistle on the break as Crawford drove forward before passing to Antoine-Curier who thankfully he dragged his 18 yard shot wide of the target. It was Gallacher who had his gloves warmed first, as Devlin forced a good save from the veteran keeper, with a header as both sides looked for the opener. O’Donnell hit another effort wide and Stevenson could do little with a cross fired straight at his head before Thistle drew first blood. The Jags opened the scoring after 29 minutes, O’Donnell’s long throw was headed clear to the edge of the box, Higginbotham fired a rasping shot which McGovern did well to parry. It was Stevenson who reacted quickest flicking the ball across the box and Doolan tapped the ball home into an empty net from two yards out. 1-0 Thistle. The home side now had their tails up and a Frans header flashed across the box, just wide. Higginbotham then skinned two defenders but his cross was too firm to coax a touch out of any of the Thistle front men. O’Donnell linked up well with Higginbotham, as they did all nght, and got himself into the box, looking certain to get a shot away, only to get the ball caught in his feet and see the chance disappear. In the 43rd minute Lawless flashed a shot inches wide after great build up involving Stevenson, O’Donnell and Doolan and, unfortunately for the visitors, it was a sign of things to come as sixty seconds later it was 2-0. Lawless dug out a great cross and Doolan brilliantly controlled the ball, turned his man and fired low and powerfully past McGovern to give the home side a two goal lead at half time.

Thistle continued on the front foot and, in the 50th minute, it should have been three. Lawless slipped his man and curled a wonderful effort that smashed off the bar and fell to Stevenson just five yards out with the goal gaping. Thistle’s number 10 took a touch and it allowed McGovern to scramble across and save. On another day that might have been a sign of things to come for Thistle but not this night as, on the hour mark, Thistle did get a third. Lawless did brilliantly to win a header at the edge of the box that found Doolan, he collected the ball with his back to goal and cheekily back heeled the ball past the stunned McGovern to make it 3-0 and complete his first senior hat-trick. Neither Dools or Thistle were finished though. Just 80 seconds after the third a magnificent O’Donnell cross on the right was met by the head of Doolan who seemed to hang in the air before powering the header home giving McGovern no chance whatsoever. It was party time at Firhill. Sean Welsh made his return to the pitch in the 69th minute and McDaid came on too, as Thistle continued to pour forward. Doolan nearly grabbed himself a fifth when brilliant play from McDaid and Lawless saw Dools right foot volley saved on the line by McGovern. Lawless, who played well but had no luck in front of goal, then saw his 20yard shot saved before, in the 89th minute, the Jags scored a fifth. McDaid did brilliantly to beat his man and drive forward, he fed the ball to Lawless who sent Elliott flying down the wing. His left foot cross was met by substitute, Eccleston, whose effort was brilliantly saved by McGovern. Eccleston was sharp though and reacted quickest to slot home and make the final score 5-0. A faultless performance from the Jags and, while one man will rightly take the plaudits, make no mistake, this was a fantastic team performance from back to front.

A CLASSIC HAUL OF FOUR FOR DOOLAN

● Thistle have only been able to field the same team for a maximum of two games in a row this season. This trend is exemplified with this line up - never mind the full eleven, Thistle have never even been able to field the same back four for more than two games in a row!

● After 5 games and 450 minutes game time for Thistle, Freddy has yet to feature in a side which has lost a goal from open play.

● Paul draws level with Scott on 4 clean-sheets for the season. He returns a clean-sheet against Hamilton for the second time in 7 weeks. In that short time he is halfway to joining the all-time 'keepers best vs Hamilton, which stands at 4, and is held between Scott and William Campbell.

● Partick Thistle 1 yellow card; Hamilton Accies 2 yellow cards. Thistle "come from behind" to record their first Premiership discipline win in 20 games - their first since the opening day of the season.

● Kallum takes over at the top of our yellow card table for the season with 7, all of which have come in the Premiership.

● Abdul is subbed for the first time in his competitive Thistle playing career, allowing 21 minutes game time for the unfortunate Sean Welsh, who finishes the game injured.

● Of the 22 outfield players who've made a competitive appearance this term, only Freddy and Liam have not been involved in a substitution.

● Archie guides Thistle to their 14th victory in the Premiership, and he duly overtakes Mr. Symon in the managers' table for Partick Thistle Top Flight wins.

● Steven rockets to the very summit of the Scottish Premiership assists table, with a registered total of 7. Could a Thistle player take this title for the second season in a row?

● Kris, ever the man for a Jaggy milestone, scored Thistle's 150th top flight goal against Hamilton when he headed home his 4th goal of the night.

● Nathan Eccleston scores his last goal for Thistle.

● With that 5th goal, Nathan ensured that Thistle have scored an average of more than 2 goals per game against Accies in the Top Flight. In this category we have now played 75 and scored 151.

● Nathan's goal was his first in the League for Thistle, and he becomes the 14th Jag to join the League scorers table for the season. Just to remind you - the record spread for this category stands at 18 different scorers in season 1999-00.

● Remarkably, Nathan becomes the eleventh current Jag to have registered against the Accies.

● This magnificent win was our biggest margin of victory over Hamilton since we beat them 7-0 at Firhill in the Southern League in September, 1941.

● The last time we scored 5 in the Top Flight was also on a Wednesday night. We defeated Livingston by 5 goals to 2 at Firhill on the 11th February 2004.

● The last time we won by a 5 goal margin in the Top Flight? Yep, that was a Wednesday night too. Wednesday, the 25th April 1979, to be precise, when we defeated Hibernian by 6 goals to 1 at Firhill.

● Thistle have only bettered a 5 goal winning margin in the national Top Flight on 13 occasions in the past.

● The last time Thistle clocked up 3 Top Flight victories by at least 4 goal margins in the same season was almost 60 years ago in season 1955-56. For the record, those games were: 17.03.1956 Stirling Albion [h] W6-1; 25.04.1956 Queen of the South [h] W9-1; 28.04.1956 Aberdeen [a] W4-0. Those who keep a keen eye on my stats postings will note that this sequence also repeats the only other time that we won 4-0 away to a team that were 2nd top of the Scottish League, chiming with our recent exploits in Inverness. Now, what were the odds on all of that?

● Thistle's unbeaten run at Firhill now to stretches to 5 competitive games.

● Thistle have now played 27 competitive games without repeating a W-D-L outcome, a truly incredible 28 game sequence which stretches from 3rd May 2014 to date.

● A combination of a freezing cold night and a pervasive pessimism amongst much of the Thistle support resulted in a poor turnout of just 2,138. This was Thistle's lowest crowd in the Top Flight, home or away, since the 1st May 1982 when just 1,973 turned out to witness a goal-less draw against Airdrieonians at Firhill.

● Kris gets his first-ever hat trick for the Jags - plus one for good measure! His first brace came in March 2009 in a 2-0 victory at Victoria Park. Prior to this game, he had been "on the verge" on ten occasions, all told.

● Kris becomes the first player to score a hat trick in Scotland's Premiership in season 2014-15.

● Kris becomes the first player to ever score 4 goals in one match in Scotland's Premiership.

● Overnight, Kris has shot to joint 7th in this season's Premiership goals table and will be looking to finish in the Top 10 for the second season in a row.

● Overall, Kris has now scored 18 goals in the Scottish Premiership and is currently the 8th all-time highest scorer in the new competition. He trails only Kris Commons (30); John Sutton (28); Anthony Stokes (27); Billy McKay (27); Kris Boyd (22); Stevie May (20) and Nadir Cifci (20).

● The phrase "Kris Doolan, Partick Thistle legend" was never more appropriate than this at Firhill this night as he raised his overall club goals tally to the 79 mark. According to my calculations, this makes him outright 23rd highest scorer in our 140 season history. He is now tucked in just one behind Frank Coulston. Whatever way you look at it, every goal for the number 9 is making history before our eyes.

● Kris is the first man to score 4 goals for Thistle in any game since Ian Cameron on the 11th August 1993, when Jags defeated Albion Rovers by 11 goals to 1 in the League Cup.

● Kris becomes the 13th man to score 4 or more for Thistle in the national Top Flight. The last man to do so was George Shaw on 29th August 1992 in a 6-3 win at home to Dundee. Kris was just 1 away from actually equalling the all-time club record for the category in question. The record haul of 5 remains jointly with John Miller (22.11.1924 Cowdenbeath [h] W6-1) and Sandy Hair (06.10.1928 Hamilton Academical [h] W8-0).

● With 65 League goals now to his credit, Kris sits jointly with Johnny Ballantyne as the clubs' 14th highest scorer in all League games.

● With 73 competitive goals now to his credit, Kris sits jointly with Jimmy Bone as the clubs' 22nd highest scorer in all competitive games.

● Kris now surges ahead of Ryan by 8 goals to 5 in the battle to be Thistle's top competitive scorer, 2014-15.

● Kris is now firmly on course to finish as top Thistle League scorer for the 4th time. His 7 goal haul puts him 4 ahead of nearest challengers Ryan and Gary. If the no.9 does eventually finish on top, he will join an ultra-elite group that includes only Willie Paul, Sam Kennedy and Dougie Somner. Only Willie Sharp went one step further than those 3, as he finished top League scorer 5 times in his illustrious career.

ongoing sequences:

● 11 consecutive competitive appearances for Stephen O'Donnell and Ryan Stevenson (a new personal best), 8th Nov 2014 to date. (Longest run since: Abdul Osman - 22 games, 13th Aug 2014 to 27th Dec 2014. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Stats Watch adheres to our stated definitions of League, League Max, Major Competitive, Competitive or All Games. Where there is no written qualification, you should presume that the Stat in question is compiled from the All Games criteria.

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