11th Apr 2015 Partick Thistle 2 Motherwell 0 (SPFL Premiership - game 33)

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matches:2014-15: ← 43game 4445 →

37y, 8m, 29d	Alan Archibald	Ian Baraclough

Lyle Taylor
James Craigen

Lyle Taylor (1-0, 54 mins); Lyle Taylor (2-0, 61 mins)
Conrad Balatoni (1-0, 54 mins); none (2-0, 61 mins)
Lyle Taylor; Conrad Balatoni		Keith Lasley; Stuart Carswell
		Stuart Carswell (@ 2-0, 88 mins)
Lyle Taylor (Kris Doolan, 79 mins)		Lionel Ainsworth (Dom Thomas, 67 mins); Keith Lasley (Stuart Carswell, 75 mins); John Sutton (Craig Moore, 75 mins)

27y, 9m, 14d	Scott Fox	George Long
22y, 11m, 0d	Stephen O'Donnell	Josh Law
23y, 10m, 12d	Callum Booth	Stephen McManus
24y, 2m, 15d	Conrad Balatoni	Louis Laing
26y, 3m, 8d	Freddy Frans	Anthony Straker
28y, 1m, 15d	Abdul Osman	Lionel Ainsworth
22y, 6m, 25d	Stuart Bannigan	Stephen Pearson
30y, 7m, 18d	Ryan Stevenson	Keith Lasley
25y, 0m, 13d	Lyle Taylor	Lee Erwin
23y, 11m, 30d	Steven Lawless	John Sutton
25y, 9m, 27d	Kallum Higginbotham	Scott McDonald future Jag

25y, 6m, 24d

35y, 7m, 26d	Paul Gallacher	Dan Twardzik
22y, 5m, 25d	Ben Richards-Everton	Mark O'Brien
19y, 4m, 20d	Declan McDaid	Fraser Kerr
20y, 9m, 9d	Gary Fraser	Simon Ramsden
20y, 7m, 5d	David Wilson [ii]	Stuart Carswell
28y, 4m, 0d	Kris Doolan	Craig Moore
20y, 9m, 15d	Dale Keenan	Dom Thomas

TTA report

A weak pass-back by Osman was Fox's only problem in a turgid first half and Thistle bossed the second half. A cross was headed back across the box for Taylor's close-in header (54) and a tap-in at the 2nd attempt (61) made sure. On play, it could have been more. Thistle went 7 points clear of a play-off place. Motherwell had a man sent off (88).

Media report

11-Apr-2015, ptfc.co.uk

With the stakes high for both clubs, there was much anticipation around the visit of Motherwell to Firhill on Saturday. After a battling and spirited display against Celtic, manager Alan Archibald made one enforced change to the starting XI, with Lyle Taylor replacing the suspended James Craigen. Kris Doolan recovered from his hamstring injury sufficiently to take a place on the bench.

It was the visitors who were on the front foot in the early stages and Sutton glanced an early header well wide. A few minutes later, Osman and Fox seemed to miscommunicate and McDonald pounced on Osman’s poor back pass, he found Sutton eight yards out and his shot would have been goal bound had it not been for a magnificent block by Frans who deflected the ball inches wide of the post. Thistle slowly started to settle and impose themselves on the game in a swirling wind which was making conditions far from easy for the players. Both Taylor and Lawless looked lively and O’Donnell was enjoying space on the right hand side. All that was lacking was the final ball in the danger area, as the Jags looked for the opening goal. Erwin saw a header easily saved by Fox at the other end but Thistle were now enjoying the majority of possession. A long O’Donnell throw caused trouble for the ‘Well defence and, after some trickery from Lawless, the shot from Osman was deflected into the arms of Long. Taylor fired a great cross along the six yard box which just evaded Stevenson and then a lovely long pass from Frans was controlled by Taylor and his powerful effort from an angle was too high. Ainsworth played Lasley in wide of the Thistle box but his chipped effort went wide of Fox’s goal and, at half time, the teams went in level at 0-0.

Into the second half and Higginbotham fired wide from 25 yards after good work from Taylor as Thistle pressed forward and, in the 54th minute the home side deservedly took the lead. O’Donnell was pulled back and, from the resulting free kick, Higginbotham found Balatoni who had brilliantly lost his man at the back post. Thistle’s centre half headed strongly back across goal and there was Taylor to nod home from a couple of yards out to make it 1-0. Minutes later it could have been two when Lawless found Booth who sent Taylor through on the keeper but his effort was well saved by Long for a Jags corner. Jags fans wouldn’t have to wait long to see the team extend their lead though. In the 61st minute Higginbotham sent Booth scampering down the left to the bye line and his low cross found Taylor five yards out, Long brilliantly saved his first effort but could do nothing about the rebound as Taylor poked his, and Thistle’s, second goal home. Thistle were now well on top and a terrific charging run by Bannigan saw him bulldoze his way into the box and his cut back was cleared off the toes of Taylor. Lawless also had an effort in an attempt to replicate his winner against Inverness but his fierce drive from 20 yards was parried by Long as the Jags continued to turn the screw. O’Donnell then cut inside onto his left foot but saw his well struck shot well saved again by Long. As time ticked down there were changes made and, shortly after arriving to the game, Kris Doolan tried his luck from 25 yards but fired over. The last action of the game saw the visitors’ substitute, Carswell, pick up two yellow cards in the space of five minutes. The first was for hauling down Bannigan as he looked to break and the second was for thumping into Stevenson from behind, a challenge that on another day may have seen a straight dismissal. The sending off marked a poor day for the visitors but ultimately an excellent afternoon’s work for Thistle. Saturday once again saw another excellent team performance from the home side with everyone working hard for each other. On another day the score line could have been bigger but for some great goalkeeping from Long.

ANOTHER THISTLE WIN TO NIL - IT'S A NEW JOINT-RECORD

● Thistle's last 8 competitive wins have been achieved in tandem with a clean-sheet. This consecutive run equals the club-record for the category, the streak having maxed-out at 8 on 5 occasions previously; 24.11.1906 to 07.12.1907, 13.11.1915 to 12.02.1916, 06.05.1916 to 25.11.1916, 06.12.1997 to 15.08.1998 and 05.03.2002 to 02.11.2002.

● Thistle's last 7 League wins have been achieved in tandem with a clean-sheet. You have to rewind back to the first World War to find the last time such a streak occurred for the club in the top-flight. The streak in question actually stands as the club's all-time League record for the category, which was 9-in-a-row from 19.04.1916 to 25.11.1916.

● Lyle Taylor scores his last goals for Thistle, signing off with a brace.

● Conrad registers his first assist of the season. Well, he does with me anyway. As is so often the case, the network of stats databases get it completely wrong and give it to Freddy Frans. Zut alors!

● Freddy's awesome clean-sheet tally rises to 9 from his 18 competitive games.

● Scott Fox and Conrad both share this victory as their 50th League win with the Jags.

● Archie draws level with "the committee" as he registers his 18th win in the managers top-flight table. Next target is Davie McParland who's in 7th place with 31 wins.

● 2014-15 has registered as Thistle's best split position to date. We will be in either 8th or 9th with a decent tally of 38 points, 8 more than the previous best which was set by Archie's Jags last season. The previous split positions were - 2013-14 (30 pts, 11th); 2003-04 (18 pts, 12th); 2002-03 (29pts, 10th).

● Archie's overall top-flight points per game tally (1.07) is competing well with John Lambie's (1.10). 46 points this season would actually see Archie nudge ahead of the great man in this statistical category.

● Goodbye to 9th! It was jointly the 3rd longest run in the same position, or joint-top when considering mid-table positions only. We once ran 20 games in 6th from 26.12.1914 to 17.04.1915, but many of these were equal placings in the days before goal average was introduced to seperate teams on the same points total. This season's run could therefore be regarded as a unique one-off.

● Thistle have not been in the play-off spot since the final pre-split game of last season, the 4-2 defeat to Hearts at Firhill. By the time of the next match, the Jags will have spent more than a year in Scotland's Top 10.

ongoing sequences:

● 24 consecutive competitive appearances for Stephen O'Donnell, 8th Nov 2014 to date. (Longest run since: Kallum Higginbotham - 33 games; 10th Aug 2013 to 26th Mar 2014). Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 39 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.)

● Thistle are 12 competitive games without defeat when scoring the opening goal.

● Thistle are 17 competitive games without a win when losing the opening goal.

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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