25th Aug 2015 Partick Thistle 0 Falkirk 1 (League Cup 2nd Round)

matches:2015-16: ← 09game 1011 →

38y, 1m, 12d	Alan Archibald	Peter Houston

Jack W. Hendry; Abdul Osman; Steven Lawless
Freddy Frans; Sean Welsh; Stuart Bannigan

		Peter Grant (0-1, 32 mins)
		John Baird (0-1, 32 mins)
		Will Vaulks; Peter Grant

David Amoo (Mathias Pogba, HT); Ryan Stevenson (David Wilson [ii], 74 mins); Gary Fraser (Declan McDaid, 82 mins)		David Smith (Aaron Muirhead, 85 mins)

30y, 4m, 15d	Tomáš Černý	Danny Rogers
28y, 4m, 10d	Gary Miller	Luke Leahy
24y, 2m, 26d	Callum Booth	Will Vaulks
28y, 5m, 20d	Dan Seaborne	Tom Taiwo
20y, 3m, 18d	Jack W. Hendry	Blair Alston future Jag
28y, 5m, 29d	Abdul Osman	Craig Sibbald
24y, 4m, 12d	David Amoo	Mark Kerr former Jag
21y, 1m, 23d	Gary Fraser	Peter Grant
28y, 8m, 14d	Kris Doolan	David Smith
31y, 0m, 1d	Ryan Stevenson	John Baird former Jag
24y, 4m, 13d	Steven Lawless	Paul Watson

26y, 4m, 6d

22y, 9m, 27d	Ryan Scully	Graham Bowman
26y, 7m, 22d	Freddy Frans	Aaron Muirhead former Jag
19y, 10m, 13d	Liam Lindsay	David McCracken
20y, 11m, 19d	David Wilson [ii]	Lee Miller
19y, 9m, 3d	Declan McDaid	Scott Shepherd
19y, 5m, 16d	Jordan Leyden	Ryan Blair
25y, 0m, 6d	Mathias Pogba	Alex Cooper

TTA report

Sloppy passing, poor final balls into the box, wasted chances. Falkirk scored (32) when a corner wasn't fully cleared. Pogba wasted the best chance to level when he took too long and his shot was blocked. Falkirk were content to sit in but in truth Thistle hardly threatened and had virtually nothing on target all night.

Media report

25-Aug-2015, ptfc.co.uk

After the disappointing performance at Tynecastle on Saturday, Thistle were looking to put it behind them and progress through to the next round of the League Cup. Between Alan Archibald’s side and a place in the third round lay a Falkirk side who have had an indifferent start to the season, including a surprise defeat to Peterhead the previous week in the Challenge Cup. Archibald made three changes from the side that had lost against Hearts with Stuart Bannigan suspended, Sean Welsh out with a toe injury and Frederic Frans dropped to the bench. Into the team came Jack W. Hendry, Abdul Osman and Steven Lawless while Mathias Pogba had recovered enough from his hamstring injury to return to the bench.

Thistle forced a couple of early corners but they missed their intended targets and came to nothing. The early spell was in keeping with Thistle’s overall performance with the home side proving very wasteful with their passing. When they were able to find space in the wide areas the final ball was poor. Hendry did well to block an Alston shot as Thistle continued to struggle and indeed it was the visitors who looked the more comfortable and composed, albeit without really creating anything of note. However, in the 32nd minute, Falkirk took the lead. Thistle only half cleared a corner and the ball was played wide into the Thistle box, Baird had time and space to look up and find Grant who guided his effort with the outside of his left foot past Cerny to make it 1-0. There was controversy when Doolan knocked a ball behind Watson 25 yards from goal and Watson blocked him from getting on the end of his own fine work. Referee, Steven Thomson gave nothing - much to the surprise of everyone in the ground. Just on half time some excellent work by Lawless saw his cross cleared by Grant as Doolan was about to pull the trigger but ultimately it was not enough to get the Jags back on level terms and the teams went in with the score 1-0 to the visitors.

Manager, Alan Archibald, made a change at half time with Mathias Pogba replacing David Amoo as Thistle fans and players looked for an improvement in the second half. The substitute was straight into the action and cut in on to his right foot but dragged his shot wide from the edge of the box. Things were looking better from the home side as Lawless fired over from 20 yards after more good work by Pogba. In the 54th minute Thistle should have equalised. Fraser played a terrific cross field pass which found Pogba in space as he drove forward. With Rogers advancing Pogba could have fired with his left foot but instead chose to cut inside the defender which meant he was forced across the box by the keeper and, by the time he had steadied himself, his shot was blocked by the visitors’ defence which had got back into their six yard box. A glorious opportunity spurned. Booth wasted a chance to pull the ball back into the box, electing a shot from a tight angle and Doolan saw a header drift well wide of goal from a Seaborne pass. As time went on there was a growing sense that this was not going to be Thistle’s night and the Bairns seemed content to defend and try to hit Thistle on the counter. The visitors were clever and were able to kill a bit of time which eventually led to a booking for goal scorer, Grant. With three minutes left, Pogba could not quite get enough on a shot after a good turn in the box while the last chance of the game saw Taiwo fire over from just six yards out following an Alston cross, a chance which, in truth, he should have buried. As referee Thomson blew the final whistle it was the visiting support celebrating while the home support made their feelings known. An extremely disappointing performance from Thistle who did not deserve anything having created very little with sloppy passing and a slow tempo.

PARTICK THISTLE NIL

● A paucity of goals in last season's campaign saw Thistle flirt with many unfavourable all-time records. It would seem that we on course to repeat the same in 2015-16. For only the 4th time in the club's history, Thistle have failed to score in 6 of the last 7 competitive games. For the record, the other runs were; 8 out of 9 games (March-April 2010), 6 out of 7 games (July-August 1999) and 6 out of 7 games (March 1921).

● Suspended Stuart and injured Sean miss their first competitive games of the season. Stuart's run of 23 not-out was 5 short of a new personal best.

● Last night's defeat was only Thistle's third in seventeen League Cup tussles with Falkirk.

● Come October 6th, 40 years will have passed since Thistle last advanced to the semi finals of the League Cup.

● The class of 2015-16 have started the season with no wins in six competitive games, and are now in the all-time Top 10 for the category. Surprisingly, two of the worst offenders were Davie McParland's team, who went 11 in 1973-74 and Willie Thornton's boys, who went 14 (the record) in 1965-66. Both recovered for mid-table finishes.

● Thistle's 70th League Cup campaign begins and ends on the same day, for the twelfth time.

ongoing sequences:

● 4 consecutive away League games in which Thistle have failed to score; 23rd May 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 4 games; 20th Feb 2010 to 20th Mar 2010. Joint club-record: 5 games; 8th Mar 1930 to 16th Aug 1930 & 18th Oct 2008 to 30th Dec 2008.)

● 4 consecutive competitive away games in which Thistle have failed to score; 23rd May 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 4 games; 30th Aug 2014 to 29th Oct 2014. Club-record: 5 games; 8th Mar 1930 to 16th Aug 1930.)

● 7 League games since the referee's match decisions favoured Thistle.

● 8 competitive games since a goal in the away strip, 30th Aug 2014 to date.

● 8 League games without a win; 9th May 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 9 games; 27th Oct 2013 to 1st Jan 2014. Club-record: 26 games; 28th Nov 1908 to 2nd Oct 1909.)

● 9 competitive games without a win, 9th May 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 10 games, 27th Oct 2013 to 1st Jan 2014. Club-record: 26 games, 28th Nov 1908 to 28th Aug 1909.)

● 9 games since a goal in the away strip, 2nd Aug 2014 to date.

● 15 competitive games since a half-time lead.

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

● 16 consecutive competitive appearances for Callum Booth, 14th Mar 2015 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Stuart Bannigan - 23 games; 24th Jan 2015 to 22nd Aug 2015. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games; 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 17 competitive games since a win in the away strip, 29th Dec 2012 to date.

● 43 competitive games since a penalty award, 19th Sep 2014 to date.

● 61 competitive games since a goal from a penalty, 22nd Feb 2014 to date.

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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