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matches:2014-15: ← 32game 3334 →

37y, 6m, 17d	Alan Archibald	Gary Teale

Callum Booth; Conrad Balatoni; Stuart Bannigan
Christie Elliott; Dan Seaborne; James Craigen

		James Dayton (0-1, 6 mins)

Steven Lawless; Abdul Osman		Stephen Mallan; John McGinn

Kallum Higginbotham (Gary Fraser, 63 mins); Abdul Osman (Declan McDaid, 73 mins); Kris Doolan (Nathan Eccleston, 79 mins)		Isaac Osbourne (Sean Kelly, 63 mins); James Dayton (Lewis Mclear, 70 mins); Steven Thompson (Gregg Wylde, 89 mins)

35y, 5m, 14d	Paul Gallacher	Mark Ridgers future Jag
22y, 8m, 19d	Stephen O'Donnell	Jason Naismith
23y, 8m, 0d	Callum Booth	James Dayton
24y, 0m, 3d	Conrad Balatoni	Jeroen Tesselaar
26y, 0m, 27d	Freddy Frans	Jim Goodwin
27y, 11m, 3d	Abdul Osman	Marc McAusland
22y, 4m, 13d	Stuart Bannigan	Steven Thompson
30y, 5m, 6d	Ryan Stevenson	Stevie Mallan
28y, 1m, 19d	Kris Doolan	Kenny McLean
23y, 9m, 18d	Steven Lawless	John McGinn
25y, 7m, 15d	Kallum Higginbotham	Isaac Osbourne former Jag

26y, 4m, 19d

27y, 7m, 2d	Scott Fox	Marián Kello
23y, 10m, 2d	James Craigen	Callum Ball
24y, 1m, 0d	Nathan Eccleston	Thomas Reilly
22y, 3m, 13d	Ben Richards-Everton	Lewis Mclear
20y, 6m, 28d	Gary Fraser	Jack Baird
19y, 2m, 8d	Declan McDaid	Gregg Wylde
20y, 7m, 3d	Dale Keenan	Sean Kelly future Jag

	Teamlines derived from PTFC / SPFL.
	3864 (SPFL)

A drilled shot following a corner (6) and an awful St Mirren side (sitting 11th) had their 1st clean sheet in 31 matches. Thistle lacked inspiration to break down a team sitting in and they did nothing productive with their 60% possession. Sloppy passing, few breaks, bad luck, no plan B. Too many players were off form.

James Dayton scored early on his debut as St Mirren held on for a precious Premiership victory at Firhill. The on-loan Oldham winger shot the visitors ahead on six minutes and Gary Teale's men were seldom troubled as they doggedly defended their lead. In a dreadfully scrappy game, Partick Thistle dominated possession but lacked the imagination to break down opponents who were happy to sit deep. The win lifts St Mirren above Motherwell to 10th spot in the table. The Paisley side are now one point clear of the play-off place and seven better off than bottom side Ross County, although the teams below them have games in hand. It is the second time St Mirren have won in the west end of Glasgow this season and this success was built on a solid performance from the back four, keeping their first clean sheet of the campaign. The visitors, with captain Steven Thompson back after hernia surgery to lead the attack, started strongly, winning a couple of corners. And from the second of those set-pieces the Buddies went ahead as a defensive header fell to Dayton in the penalty box and his scuffed shot from 16 yards found the bottom corner of the net. Stung by the early goal, the home side began to dictate play, without creating too many clear openings. The scores should have been level when Callum Booth, making his first Jags appearance after a loan switch from Hibs, delivered a fantastic curling cross from the left. Ryan Stevenson just had to get a touch right in front of goal but was a fraction out with the timing of his attempted header. Kallum Higginbotham gathered the loose ball to tee up Stephen O'Donnell and the full-back's thumping strike was pushed away by Mark Ridgers. St Mirren immediately launched a counter-attack, with full-back Jeroen Tesselaar carrying the ball all the way to the edge of the opponents' penalty area before laying it off for Kenny McLean to drag a shot wide. Thistle were pressing again early in the second half but Ridgers had no trouble dealing with weak efforts from Steven Lawless and Higginbotham, while O'Donnell and Stevenson lashed efforts off target. Alan Archibald's team had scored seven in their previous two outings but gave their support nothing to cheer in the final half hour as St Mirren central defenders Jim Goodwin and Marc McAusland coped comfortably with a succession of high, hopeful balls. The visitors threatened from a late corner as Stevie Mallan's delivery was allowed to land in a busy penalty area and bounced an inch over so over the head of McAusland, with the home defence posted missing, but it had rarely looked like a second goal was necessary.

Colin Moffat, bbc.com

STRICTLY ONCE PER MONTH

● 23-year-old Callum Booth makes his Thistle debut. He becomes the 34th player to appear for Partick Thistle this season, and the 25th to do so competitively.

● 24-year-old Nathan Eccleston plays his last game for Thistle.

● In the League, Thistle have only beaten St Mirren once in the last 34 years at Firhill, a sorry 15 game run which began away back in January 1981.

● Thistle register as the first club which has failed to breach St Mirren's defence this season, and the Paisley side duly end their run of 30 competitive matches without a clean-sheet.

● Thistle's last 7 League defeats have all been to nil. 5 of the last 6 have been lost by 1 goal to 0.

● For the eleventh footballing month in a row, Thistle have registered exactly one lonely League victory in each calendar month. This incredibly strange run now stretches from January 2014 to January 2015.

● Thistle stay 9th in the Premiership for the 11th match in a row.

● The attendance of 3,864 represents Thistle's second largest home gate of the season - but is still 35% down on the equivalent fixture from last season which drew 5,971.

● Thistle's 12 League games have attracted 40,291 through the gates, down 31% from the 58,484 who watched the like for like fixtures in 2013-14 (replacing Hearts with Dundee and Hibs with Hamilton). Even removing the 3 "mismatched" League games versus Hamilton and Dundee, the like for like drop remains enormous at 27%, a figure which seems completely out of step with the rest of the clubs in the Premiership.

ongoing sequences:

● 13 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.)

● 29 competitive games since a back-to-back win, draw or loss, 7th May 2014 to date. (A new club-record.)

● 29 competitive games since back-to-back draws, 7th May 2014 to date. (Longest run since: 59 games, 18th Aug 2009 to 11th Dec 2010. Club-record: 201 games, 11th Feb 1957 to 1st Apr 1961.)

● 34 competitive games since back-to-back defeats, 29th Mar 2014 to date. (Longest run since the joint club-record: 67 games, 7th Apr 2012 to 27th Oct 2013 & 13th Mar 1920 to 27th Apr 1921.)

● 62 competitive games since back-to-back wins, 14th Sep 2013 to date. (Longest run since the club-record: 69 games, 31st Dec 1907 to 9th Oct 1909.)

● 63 League games since back-to-back Top Flight wins, 9th May 2004 to date. (Longest run since the club-record: 77 games, 2nd Nov 1912 to 5th Dec 1914.)

● 68 competitive games since back-to-back clean-sheets, 6th Aug 2013 to date. (Longest run since: 68 games, 14th Jan 2006 to 11th Aug 2007. Club-record: 303 games, 26th Feb 1938 to 23rd Jun 1945.)

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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