9th May 2015 Hamilton Academical 1 Partick Thistle 1 (SPFL Premiership - game 36)

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matches:2014-15: ← 46game 4748 →

	Martin Canning	Alan Archibald	37y, 9m, 26d

		James Craigen
		Abdul Osman

Greg Docherty (1-1, 85 mins)		Stephen O'Donnell (1-0, 72 mins)
Ali Crawford (1-1, 85 mins)		Kallum Higginbotham (1-0, 72 mins)
Ali Crawford; Darian MacKinnon

Mikey Devlin (Lucas Tagliapietra, 15 mins); Jason Scotland (Nigel Hasselbaink, 59 mins); Darian MacKinnon (Greg Docherty, 80 mins)		Ryan Stevenson (Gary Fraser, 33 mins); Lyle Taylor (Kris Doolan, 60 mins)

	Michael McGovern	Scott Fox	27y, 10m, 11d
	Mikey Devlin	Stephen O'Donnell	22y, 11m, 28d
	Grant Gillespie	Callum Booth	23y, 11m, 9d
	Dougie Imrie	Conrad Balatoni	24y, 3m, 12d
	Jason Scotland	Freddy Frans	26y, 4m, 6d
	Ali Crawford	Stuart Bannigan	22y, 7m, 22d
	Darren Lyon	James Craigen	24y, 1m, 11d
	Kieran MacDonald	Ryan Stevenson	30y, 8m, 15d
	Louis Longridge	Lyle Taylor	25y, 1m, 10d
	future Jag Darian MacKinnon	Steven Lawless	24y, 0m, 27d
	Jesús García Tena	Kallum Higginbotham	25y, 10m, 24d

			25y, 3m, 7d

	Darren Hill	Paul Gallacher	35y, 8m, 23d
	future Jag Stephen Hendrie	Ben Richards-Everton	22y, 6m, 22d
	Nigel Hasselbaink	Gary Fraser	20y, 10m, 7d
	Craig Watson	David Wilson [ii]	20y, 8m, 3d
	Greg Docherty	Dale Keenan	20y, 10m, 12d
	Ali El-Zubaidi	Kris Doolan	28y, 4m, 28d
	Lucas Tagliapietra	Christie Elliott	23y, 11m, 13d

TTA report

1,087 Thistle fans saw a scrappy first half. Stevenson shot straight at the keeper, Taylor blazed over, Hamilton hit the bar from a free-kick. A good move down the right saw Higginbotham set up O'Donnell with a cut-back (72) but poor defending at a corner resulted in a back-post header for the equaliser (85).

Media report

03-May-2015, Herald Scotland

THE DEBATE over the suitability of synthetic surfaces has been re-opened following two nasty injuries at New Douglas Park - which was undoubtedly not conducive to free-flowing football. Hamilton centre back Mikey Devlin and Thistle attacker Ryan Stevenson both suffered knee damage which Firhill winger Kallum Higginbotham is convinced is attributable to the 3G pitch. Both players got a foot caught on the surface as they tried to turn with Devlin carried off on a stretcher and Stevenson helped up the tunnel, although it is hoped that medical examinations today will not reveal significant damage.

If it was up to Higginbotham, however, he would have all plastic surfaces ripped up but the reality is that they are here to stay. Higginbotham said: “I have never approved of plastic pitches and never will. It is just not for me. It is hard to get any sort of game going on that surface. I did my knee earlier in the season down at Kilmarnock. Surely it is not good for your joints. You feel about 105 when you come off the pitch after the game. It just shows you that it is not suitable to play 90 minutes on. I don't know how Hamilton train on it every day as it must knock a couple of years off your career. The boy from Hamilton took a sore one and that was down to the pitch. His foot got jarred in the pitch.”

The Firhill forward, who is out of contact this summer, revealed that he would be unlikely to sign for a club that plays on 3G in the same way that James McFadden opted not to play for Kilmarnock. He said: “If you are prone to injuries there is no point in taking a risk. I have spoken to Faddy about it and he had the chance to join Kilmarnock but didn't because his knees wouldn't hold up. The more and more you bring them in the more the game is going to go downhill. I'm not sure if I could play for a club who play on an artificial pitch.”

Higginbotham was the one bright spark of a dour contest, the result of which effectively secured seventh place for Accies who hold a five-point advantage over Partick with two matches remaining. He set up Stephen O'Donnell to score from 12 yards in 72 minutes to give Thistle the lead but 18-year-old Greg Docherty headed an equaliser five minutes from time from Ali Crawford's corner. “It was hard to get a game going as you never knew where the bounce of the ball was,” he said. “It was very dry and might have been better and more entertaining if it had a bit of water on it. As it was you could only lump it up the park and hope for second balls. Considering how late they scored in the game and with their second effort on target it is hard to take. It does feel like a defeat and the fact it wasn't from open play makes it even worse. Regardless of the pitch you can't make excuses because we should have won the game.”

In fairness to Accies, Jesus Garcia Tena was desperately unfortunate with a terrific free-kick which was pushed onto the bar by Scott Fox and looked as though it may have crossed the line when it came back down. [tv evidence shows it didn't] However, he accepted that a draw was fair and is satisfied that Hamilton will complete a very respectable first season back in the top flight. He said: “I couldn't see from my position but some team-mates watching from the stand said it was in. Sometimes you get these and sometimes you don't. It happened when we played Aberdeen in February and Adam Rooney's shot was not given and we got away with it. The referee didn't give my free-kick either. I haven't had a chance to look at it again yet. I was pleased to see Greg Docherty get the equaliser for us and it was a reward for the hard work he has been doing this season. It's great that the young boys get their chance - just like Darren Lyon who has now played five or six games in a row. For us it's important to finish in seventh spot.”

ARCHIE HITS THE BIG 100

● Alan Archibald becomes the 11th man to reach the 100 competitive games milestone as Thistle manager. He should reach the Top 10 in August, with Dick Campbell currently occupying that position on 103 games.

● Davie McParland is currently the only man who can boast of appearing in the Top 10 competitive appearance lists as both a player and a manager. Almost certainly, he has just 3 months to go until his brilliant feat ceases to be unique.

● Jags go 4 competitive games unbeaten for the first time this season.

● Stephen O'Donnell scores his last goal for Thistle. In his 4th season with the club, he has doubled his total competitive goals tally from 5 to 10.

● By my reckoning, Kallum get his 6th competitive assist for the season and continues to close in on Steven (8) at the top the table.

● By my reckoning, there's a real ding-dong battle at the top of the competitive goals/assists combi-table which now reads; Ryan Stevenson (11), Stephen O'Donnell (11), Steven Lawless (11) and Kris Doolan (10).

● Stuart joins Abdul at the top of this season's competitive appearances table, with both players now sitting on 39.

● Ross County's converted spot-kick (at home to St Mirren) leaves Thistle as the only side without a penalty goal in this season's Premiership.

● Despite the large travelling support (officially 1,087), the attendance figure of 2,342 registers as the lowest crowd at any Thistle League game this season.

● Thistle are guaranteed to finish the season in at least 8th place, which will match Lambie's best from the 1990s. We've never finished higher than that since 1981.

ongoing sequences:

● 4 consecutive clean-sheets in competitive home games; 14th Mar 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 4 games; 30th Oct 1999 to 18th Dec 1999. Club-record: 7 games; 19th Aug 1911 to 14th Oct 1911.)

● 4 consecutive clean-sheets in home League games; 14th Mar 2015 to date. (Longest run since the joint club-record: 5 games; 15th Aug 2009 to 17th Oct 2009, 18th Dec 1993 to 26th Mar 1994, 6th Dec 1975 to 7th Feb 1976, 1st Jan 1971 to 20th Mar 1971, 25th Nov 1961 to 6th Jan 1962 & 19th Aug 1911 to 14th Oct 1911.)

● 4 consecutive competitive home wins; 14th Mar 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 7 wins; 19th Jan 2013 to 10th Apr 2013. Joint club-record: 11 wins; 26th Aug 1899 to 3rd Feb 1900 & 21st Jul 2012 to 24th Nov 2012.)

● 4 consecutive home League wins; 14th Mar 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 7 wins; 19th Jan 2013 to 10th Apr 2013. Joint club-record: 10 wins; 5th Sep 1896 to 25th Sep 1897 & 7th Nov 1970 to 5th Apr 1971.)

● 9 competitive games since a home draw.

● 14 competitive games without defeat when scoring the opening goal.

● 23 games without going backwards in the table (where the streak contains at least some positive progress), 3rd Dec 2014 to date. (Longest run since: 23 games, 24th Nov 2001 to 10th Aug 2002. Club-record: 29 games, 7th Oct 2000 to 4th Aug 2001.)

● 27 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.)

● 42 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.)

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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