19th Dec 2015 Partick Thistle 1 Ross County 0 (SPFL Premiership - game 18)

matches:2015-16: ← 22game 2324 →

38y, 5m, 6d	Alan Archibald	Jim McIntyre

Robbie Muirhead
David Amoo

Andrew Davies (1-0, og 52 mins)
Stuart Bannigan (1-0, og 52 mins)
Steven Lawless; Mustapha Dumbuya; Callum Booth; Abdul Osman		Martin Woods; Richard Foster; Jackson Irvine

Robbie Muirhead (David Amoo, 59 mins); Kris Doolan (Mathias Pogba, 84 mins)		Jonathan Franks (Stewart Murdoch, 69 mins); Michael Gardyne (Alex Schalk, 76 mins); Craig Curran (Tony Dingwall, 87 mins)

30y, 8m, 9d	Tomáš Černý	Scott Fox former Jag
28y, 4m, 12d	Mustapha Dumbuya	Jonathan Franks
24y, 6m, 19d	Callum Booth	Liam Boyce
28y, 9m, 14d	Dan Seaborne	Andrew Davies
20y, 2m, 7d	Liam Lindsay	Martin Woods future Jag
28y, 9m, 22d	Abdul Osman	Jackson Irvine
19y, 9m, 11d	Robbie Muirhead	Michael Gardyne
23y, 3m, 2d	Stuart Bannigan	Jamie Reckord
29y, 0m, 8d	Kris Doolan	Richard Foster future Jag
25y, 9m, 4d	Sean Welsh	Craig Curran
24y, 8m, 7d	Steven Lawless	Chris Robertson

25y, 9m, 21d

23y, 1m, 20d	Ryan Scully	Gary Woods
28y, 8m, 4d	Gary Miller	Alex Schalk
24y, 8m, 6d	David Amoo	Ian McShane
26y, 11m, 16d	Freddy Frans	Scott Boyd former Jag
21y, 3m, 13d	David Wilson [ii]	Stewart Murdoch
22y, 1m, 2d	Ryan Edwards	Marcus Fraser
25y, 4m, 0d	Mathias Pogba	Tony Dingwall

notes

Art giveaway # 2: 2,000 scarves, designed by Pittsburgh-based artist Jon Rubin.

TTA report

Jittery, misplaced passing made for an anxious first half. County had most of the pressure and Cerny had some fine saves. A Bannigan cross was turned in as an OG (52) and it turned the game. Doolan hit the post with a double header and Lindsay and Amoo went close. 4 top-flight wins! First since Oct 1977.

Media report

19-Dec-2015, ptfc.co.uk

Thistle recorded their fourth consecutive top flight win for the first time in almost 40 years when the side narrowly defeated Ross County by a single goal to nil. Alan Archibald made one change to the side that triumphed at Tannadice with Robbie Muirhead starting ahead of David Amoo, while Scott Fox returned to Firhill for the first time since his summer move to the Highlands.

Thistle were sluggish to start the game and careless passing almost presented County with several good opportunities. Cerny had to rush out his box to collect a short pass back from Muirhead. He didn't, however, get to the ball and Boyce had a real opportunity to put Thistle under some pressure but Osman was on hand to get the ball clear. The best of which was when Davies brought on a tremendous reactive save from Cerny after a well swung Woods freekick. Boyce threatened down the left. He twisted and turned to find space but his cross was blocked and cleared for a throw. Thistle didn’t create many clear cut chances in the first half with Lawless testing Fox for the first time with the half time whistle approaching. Bannigan did fire a free kick into the box which eventually fell to Osman whose effort was deflected over the bar.

The second half started in a similar tempo before Bannigan’s cross was met by Davies who headed it beyond the helpless Fox to score the only goal of the game. County had a couple of late penalty shouts which were waved away by referee Dallas, while Doolan managed to hit the crossbar twice in the same move of attacking play, but one goal was all that settled this fixture and Thistle rise to 7th place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

GREAT 4-IN-A-ROW

● Stuart Bannigan shoots to the top of the assists chart with his 4th of the season. Amazingly, he's registered 3 competitive games-in-a-row and, on a personal level, in each of his last 4 appearances. He's the first player to do a personal 4-in-a-row since my assists records began in 2013-14. He's the third Jag to do the 3-games-in-a-row since promotion, following in the boot steps of Christie Elliott (May-Aug 2014) and Kallum Higginbotham (May 2015).

● 19-year-old Robbie Muirhead plays his last game for Thistle.

● As happened in the corresponding fixture of last year, a Staggie turns one into his own net as Thistle win to nil. The Dingwall side have now provided 2 of the 3 SPFL og's in the Thistle goals for columns.

● Thistle win 4-in-a-row in the top-flight for the first time in over 38 years.

● Thistle have been upwardly mobile in the top-flight table placings for 4 consecutive games. You need to rewind back to October 1977 to find the last time that happened.

● Firhill's lowest League crowd of the season is re-set at 2,762.

● Back-to-back top-flight wins with clean-sheets are rare for the Jags in the modern era. This was only the 7th occurrence post-75. Archie's Jags have now registered 2 of the 7. Bertie's boys done it twice, Cormack's lads once and Lambie's lot twice. Willie Thornton's Jags were last to go beyond this point, winning 5 consecutive top-flight games to nil in February-March 1968.

● Thistle are now 3 pts ahead of their same-stage position of 2014-15.

● For the second consecutive season, I find myself considering the remarkable possibility that Archie's Jags could set a post-75 club-record for the greatest gathering of top-flight points. When applying 3 points per win across all-seasons, Thistle's post-reconstruction best is currently 1.31 points-per-game, which was first set in 1977-78. The current PPG of 1.28 is on course to be the best since Bertie's era. For context, Lambie's best was 1.19, set in 1994-95.

● Should Thistle go Top 6 on boxing day, Archie's Jags would grab a share of the all-time club record (at any League level) of 5 consecutive table progressions. The existing record was set in 1930, and equalled in both 1932 and 1961. To do such a thing in a small 12-team League would be incredible.

● Victory at home to St Johnstone on boxing day would see Thistle win 5-in-a-row in the top-flight for the first time since January 1972. That deserves a 3,500 crowd at the very least.

ongoing sequences:

● 4 consecutive competitive wins, 21st Nov 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 8 wins, 19th Feb 2013 to 30th Mar 2013. Club-record: 10 wins, 22nd Oct 1932 to 26th Dec 1932.)

● 4 consecutive League wins; 21st Nov 2015 to date. (Longest run since: 8 wins; 19th Feb 2013 to 30th Mar 2013. Club-record: 12 wins; 1st Oct 1932 to 26th Dec 1932.)

● 22 competitive games without defeat when scoring the opening goal, 23rd Sep 2014 to date.

● 29 consecutive competitive appearances for Callum Booth, 14th Mar 2015 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Stephen O'Donnell - 29 games; 8th Nov 2014 to 23rd May 2015. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games; 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 56 competitive games without a penalty award, 19th Sep 2014 to date.

● 74 competitive games without 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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