2nd Jan 2016 Celtic 1 Partick Thistle 0 (SPFL Premiership - game 20)

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matches:2015-16: ← 24game 2526 →

	Ronny Deila	Alan Archibald	38y, 5m, 20d

		Sean Welsh
		Ryan Edwards

Leigh Griffiths (0-1, 90 mins)
none (0-1, 90 mins)
Nir Bitton		Stuart Bannigan
Nir Bitton (@ 0-0, 68 mins)
Nadir Çiftçi (Leigh Griffiths, HT); Tom Rogic (James Forrest, 64 mins); Kris Commons (Gary Mackay-Steven, 90 mins)		Mustapha Dumbuya (Gary Miller, 58 mins); Sean Welsh (Mathias Pogba, 71 mins); Stuart Bannigan (David Wilson [ii], 90 mins)

	Craig Gordon	Tomáš Černý	30y, 8m, 23d
	Mikael Lustig	Mustapha Dumbuya	28y, 4m, 26d
	Efe Ambrose	Callum Booth	24y, 7m, 3d
	Jozo Simunovic	Dan Seaborne	28y, 9m, 28d
	Kieran Tierney	Liam Lindsay	20y, 2m, 21d
	Stefan Johansen	Abdul Osman	28y, 10m, 6d
	Nir Bitton	David Amoo	24y, 8m, 20d
	Kris Commons	Stuart Bannigan	23y, 3m, 16d
	Tom Rogic	Kris Doolan	29y, 0m, 22d
	Callum McGregor	Sean Welsh	25y, 9m, 18d
	Nadir Çiftçi	Steven Lawless	24y, 8m, 21d

			26y, 3m, 16d

	Logan Bailly	Ryan Scully	23y, 2m, 4d
	Emilio Izaguirre	Gary Miller	28y, 8m, 18d
	Leigh Griffiths	Ryan Edwards	22y, 1m, 16d
	Gary Mackay-Steven	Robbie Muirhead	19y, 9m, 25d
	Scott Allan	Freddy Frans	26y, 11m, 30d
	Carlton Cole	David Wilson [ii]	21y, 3m, 27d
	James Forrest	Mathias Pogba	25y, 4m, 14d

TTA report

Thistle had the measure of Celtic and certainly had their chances (and 10 corners). Heroic defending blunted the Celtic attack and they were reduced to 10 men (68). Sensing a win, Thistle went 2 up front and Seaborne's header was cleared off the line (81) then a wicked deflection set up the sickener (90).

Media report

02-Jan-2016, ptfc.co.uk

Thistle travelled to Celtic Park for the first fixture of 2016, looking to maintain the run of good form which had seen the side propel up the Ladbrokes Premiership table. With no wins at Celtic Park since September 1992, Alan Archibald’s side entered the fixture with positive momentum and a belief that today would see the side break another lengthy fixture jinx. The manager made just the single change to the side which battled out a 0-0 draw with Aberdeen on Wednesday with Ryan Edwards being the unfortunate party to drop to the substitute’s bench. Sean Welsh, available once again after suspension, came into the starting line up as Alan stuck with the trusty 4-2-3-1 formation which has served the team so well in recent weeks.

Thistle started the game in confident fashion not allowing the home side to settle into any sort of rhythm with a high pressing mentality. It was from this confident start which saw the side win the game’s first corner after only 90 seconds, but Celtic were able to clear Stuart Bannigan’s delivery. Celtic gradually came into the game but the Thistle side stuck to their task well, denying their opponents free opportunities in the final third of the pitch. When Thistle were breached, resolute defending stopped the path to goal and on the rare occasions that the ball advanced beyond the commanding presence of Dan Seaborne and Liam Lindsay, safe handling from Tomas Cerny proved more than equal to the attacking intents of Celtic. Callum Booth was finding the left hand side of the pitch joyful and he linked up well with Steven Lawless who twisted on the edge of the penalty area. His right footed cross, intended for David Amoo, was just slightly overhit for the winger. It was Lawless who had the best Thistle chance of the first half when from a Thistle corner, the ball fell to him just outside the penalty area before firing a volley just yards wide of Craig Gordon’s right-hand post. Celtic were beginning to prove a more potent threat against the Thistle defence but strong, heroic defending saw efforts blocked before reaching Cerny. In particular a strong block by Lindsay after Ciftci seemed destined to bury the ball home, had Thistle goal-less as half time approached. The striker did find the back of the net, but he was a yard offside and the assistant referee raised his flag to rule out the strike. There was to be one final piece of drama in the first half when Johansen spun his marker deep inside the Thistle penalty box. His cut back trundled across the six yard box but, thankfully for Thistle, no Celtic player gambled to poke the ball home.

The second half started with the game becoming extremely stretched as Thistle and Celtic looked for the opening goal of the game. Whenever the Hoops got the ball into the Thistle penalty area, Tomas Cerny was in position to take the sting out of the play with some safe, commanding handling. Thistle were pin-pointing Efe Ambrose as the weak link in the Celtic defence and after he blundered from yet another piece of pressure by Kris Doolan, Sean Welsh was unlucky not to profit deep inside the Celtic half. Seaborne had to save Thistle when Cerny was beaten, his block sending the ball away from Cerny’s goal before Bannigan was hauled back by Nir Bitton as he tried to spark another counter attack, earning the Celtic midfielder a yellow card. Booth was next to test Craig Gordon in the Celtic goal with a right footed effort before Celtic went down to 10 men. Nir Bitton clattered into Gary Miller and referee Stephen Finnie deemed that to be a second yellow card, with Celtic spending the last 22 minutes of the game down to 10 men. The loss of a man for Celtic seemed to disrupt Thistle’s momentum a little but Alan Archibald went for it with the introduction of Mathias Pogba for Sean Welsh as Thistle tried to use their one man advantage to maximum effect. Celtic substitute Leigh Griffiths was beginning to have a personal battle with Tomas Cerny, with the goalkeeper proving more than equal to the deadly striker’s efforts on goal as the game entered the last 10 minutes. Thistle almost snatched the first goal when Dan Seaborne connected with Stuart Bannigan’s corner, but his header was scrambled off the line by Kieran Tierney. There was to be a sucker punch as the game entered its final chapter with Celtic stealing a win in a game Thistle didn’t deserve to lose. Tomas Cerny appeared to have Kris Commons’ shot covered, before it spun off Liam Lindsay. The ball looped high into the air, and directly into the path of Leigh Griffiths who fired the ball into the corner of the net from around six yards out. It was a goal Thistle scarcely deserved to concede and brings to an end the unbeaten league run which had spanned for the previously two months. Thistle will take a break from league action next week to face St Mirren in the Scottish Cup. Thistle will be looking to use that as the spark for another long unbeaten run.

A RARE RED

● Thistle meet Celtic in Saturday League action for the first time since November 2003.

● Thistle register 4 consecutive 1st half nil nils for the first time since January 2012.

● The ever-committed Stuart Bannigan registers his 9th yellow card in 19 League games. Biggest League hauls since 1997-98 were only TEN; Andy Lyons (1997-98), Darren Brady (2006-07) and Kallum Higginbotham (2013-14).

● Nir Bitton becomes the first Celt to be sent off vs Thistle since Tommy Burns in 1978.

● Thistle have now failed to score in 5 consecutive League games against Celtic. In this "same team" category, it's (jointly) the second longest barren run in the club's League history; only a 6 game League run vs St Johnstone (1994-97) went beyond this point. Bizarrely, this exactly matches a similar occurrence vs Aberdeen just 3 days earlier.

● Thistle have now failed to score in 6 consecutive competitive games against Celtic. In this "same team" category, it's (jointly) the third longest barren run in the club's history; only 8 game runs vs St Johnstone (1994-99) and Rangers (1923-25) have went beyond this point.

● The all-time club record for consecutive losses to the same team in the League is once again reset, now standing at 18 vs. Celtic.

ongoing sequences:

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

● 31 consecutive competitive appearances for Callum Booth, 14th Mar 2015 to date, a new personal best. (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.)

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

● 76 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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