14th May 2016 Partick Thistle 2 Hamilton Academical 2 (SPFL Premiership - game 38)

matches:2015-16: ← 44game 4501 →

38y, 10m, 1d	Alan Archibald	Martin Canning

Gary Miller; Aidan Nesbitt
Liam Lindsay; Sean Welsh

Kris Doolan (1-0, 2 mins); David Amoo (2-1, 19 mins)		Eamonn Brophy (1-1, pen 11 mins); Eamonn Brophy (2-2, 20 mins)
David Amoo (1-0, 2 mins); Freddy Frans (2-1, 19 mins)		none (1-1, pen 11 mins); Greg Docherty (2-2, 20 mins)
Gary Miller

David Amoo (Kevin Nisbet, 61 mins); Kris Doolan (Mathias Pogba, 73 mins); Gary Miller (Matthew McInally, 87 mins)		Gramoz Kurtaj (Alex D'Acol, 70 mins); Danny Redmond (Ross Cunningham, 78 mins); Ali Crawford (Ronan Hughes, 81 mins)

23y, 6m, 15d	Ryan Scully	Alan Martin
29y, 0m, 29d	Gary Miller	Ziggy Gordon future Jag
17y, 4m, 22d	James Penrice	Antons Kurakins
29y, 2m, 9d	Dan Seaborne	Michael Devlin
27y, 4m, 11d	Freddy Frans	Grant Gillespie
22y, 5m, 27d	Ryan Edwards	Danny Redmond
25y, 1m, 1d	David Amoo	Ali Crawford
21y, 8m, 8d	David Wilson [ii]	Gramoz Kurtaj
29y, 5m, 3d	Kris Doolan	Eamonn Brophy
19y, 3m, 9d	Aidan Nesbitt	Greg Docherty
25y, 1m, 2d	Steven Lawless	Steven Boyd

24y, 6m, 4d

36y, 8m, 28d	Paul Gallacher	Michael McGovern
20y, 7m, 2d	Liam Lindsay	Alex D'Acol
20y, 2m, 5d	Jordan Leyden	Ronan Hughes
18y, 9m, 12d	Matthew McInally	Ryan Tierney
19y, 2m, 6d	Kevin Nisbet	Ross Cunningham
25y, 8m, 25d	Mathias Pogba	Marc Kelly
		Ben Reilly

notes

Thistle filled only 6 of their 7 allocated bench slots.

TTA report

2 poor defences, 2 keepers at fault. Doolan's header at the back post (2) and Amoo's back post bundle (19) put Thistle ahead twice but Accies scored with a soft pen conceded by Scully (11) and he was rounded looking slow (20). Accies (the better team) hit woodwork twice, Thistle once. Still, in top flight! Finished 9th.

Media report

14-May-2016, ptfc.co.uk

The final game of the 2015/16 season saw Thistle host Hamilton in a game that had little riding on it bar pride. Manager Alan Archibald was still down to the barebones and he made only two changes from the side which drew 3-3 with Dundee United on Tuesday. Gary Miller replaced Liam Lindsay in defence, allowing Frederic Frans to shuffle to his customary positon of central defence. Sean Welsh missed out through injury allowing Aidan Nesbitt a start in the final game of his loan from Celtic. Before the game got underway Firhill rose for a minute’s applause in memory of Ricky Roughan who tragically passed away in the early hours of Tuesday.

Thistle started the game brightly with Doolan and Nesbitt linking up in the opening sixty seconds before the on-loan youngster found himself crowded out by Accies defenders. Doolan was at it again seconds later when he played in David Amoo. The winger forced a tremendous save from Martin. From the first corner of the game, Thistle took the lead. Penrice’s delivery wasn’t dealt with by the Hamilton defence, Thistle kept the ball alive and Doolan was able to head home at the back post. An incredibly open game saw both sides creating chances in the opening stages and with ten minutes played Accies were level. A chipped ball into the box was deflected by Miller. Nobody tracked a Hamilton run into the box and Scully clipped the player with his feet leaving Muir with little choice but to award the spot kick. Brophy sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with an excellent low kick. Thistle were passing the ball around well with the confidence of a team looking for the three points with Lawless forcing a great save from Martin in the Hamilton goal. The corner was cleared for a second and Thistle regained the lead. Penrice again whipped over a terrific delivery, Frans, again, flicked it on and David Amoo bundled home at the back post. Having just taken the lead, Thistle conceded it quickly when Brophy pounced on a hopeful through ball, rounded Scully and tapped into the back of the unguarded net. At this stage, the game threatened to trouble the record books with both teams attacking at will. Penrice whipped over a tremendous cross from the left hand side, Doolan had to adjust his body but couldn’t steer his header on target. The game lost a bit of its tempo in the remaining first half and there were no further chances in the first half allowing both teams to go in at the break level at two goals apiece.

Accies made a strong start to the second half and after breaking from a Thistle corner, Brophy thumped an effort of Ryan Scully’s post. Hamilton passed up a gilt edged chance 10 minutes into the second half when Crawford beat the offside trap to tee up Boyd. The youngster blazed the effort wide of goal when he should really have tested Scully in the Jags goal. Nesbitt was a growing influence in the game and after he fired into the side netting of the goal, he teed up Edwards who fires straight at the goalkeeper. In an unusual occurrence for a Thistle game, a water break was required just after 15 minutes in to the second half and once the game got back underway Penrice was next to have an effort on target. As a 65th minute’s applause for Ricky travelled around the ground, Gary Miller was treading a fine line with a couple of challenges before finally ending up in the referees notebook with 67 minutes on the clock. Nisbet wasn’t short on confidence and he was freely having efforts on goal when the ball dropped to him but wasn’t troubling Martin in the Hamilton goal. His flick on, from a Scully goalkick presented Nesbitt with a clear route through to goal. He dinked the ball over Martin only to be denied by the crossbar. Play raged up the other end and Brophy struck the wood work again when a curled effort from 16 yards hit the crossbar. The game was continuing to be an exciting end to end affair and after slick play from Nisbet, he was able to play in Lawless at a tight angle. He rounded the goalkeeper but with too acute an angle to shoot, he could only cut the ball back. Pogba couldn’t bundle the ball home but Accies struggled to clear. Nesbitt collected the loose clearance but curl the ball wide by a couple of feet. As the game entered the final stages there were no serious efforts on goal. Greg Docherty did well to beat James Penrice but D’Acol could only fire over the bar from his cross. The game fizzled out and when the full time whistle blew Thistle had to settle for a point in a game they twice led. Thistle finish the 2015/16 campaign with the same points tally as last campaign, but finish a place lower in the Ladbrokes Premiership table. The countdown of two months and two days until the next competitive game begins now.

POST-SPLIT SCOTTISH RECORD FOR DOOLAN

● The closing game of the 141st season of Partick Thistle F.C.

● Matthew McInally becomes the 31st player to be listed on a competitive first-team team-sheet this season, and later in the game, becomes the 29th to register an appearance - his competitive debut.

● Kris Doolan scores in the second minute matching his quickest existing effort - the opener in a 2-1 Challenge Cup victory over Ayr United in September 2010.

● Kris scores for Thistle in 5 consecutive competitive games, extending his new personal best. He's the first Jag since Joe McBride in 1961 to achieve this feat purely in top-flight action. A share of the all-time club-record top-flight 6-in-a-row, set by Sandy Hair in October 1923 and equalled by Bobby Howitt in February 1953, is now firmly in his sights.

● Kris becomes the first player in Scottish football ever to score in all five of the post-split games.

● Doolan's headed opener ends a drought of 4 months without a Thistle goal at the North Stand.

● The clumsy concession of a penalty typifies another terrible crime-count season for Thistle. With my arbitrary system (1 pt yel; 4 pts red; 5 pts pen) Thistle lost 127 pts to 69 pts in this season's competitive tally up; a comprehensive hammering.

● In his 44th (and final) game, Freddy Frans registers his first-ever assist for the Jags, completing a very lively week for the big Belgian!

● Amoo's headed goal in 19 minutes ensured that Thistle have now returned a first-half double in 2-games-in-a-row, a real about-turn on this season's abysmal first-half record. It's only the second time such a dizzying streak has been achieved since Thistle's promotion.

● James Penrice, the most recently-born player to play for Thistle, has now delivered 3 goal-making corners in his first 2 matches. The youngster deservedly picks up the man-of-the-match award.

● In the 61st minute, Kevin Nisbet registers his 9th competitive appearance of the season, although he's yet to get his first start. It's the second highest such figure in the last 20 years - only Shaun Fraser (with an astonishing 17 in 2010-11) has went beyond Kevin's total.

● 19-year-old Aidan Nesbitt plays his last game for Thistle.

● 27-year-old Freddy Frans plays his last game for Thistle.

● 29-year-old Dan Seaborne plays his last game for Thistle.

● 29-year-old Gary Miller plays his last game for Thistle.

● With his 14 goals tally, Kris Doolan finishes as the joint-5th top goalscorer in this season's SPFL Premiership. It's the third consecutive season that Kris has finished in that Top 10 - he was joint-10th (with 9) in 2014-15 and joint-9th (with 11) in 2013-14. Billy McKay and Kris Doolan are the only 2 men who can lay claim to being ever-presents in the SPFL Premiership end-of-season Top 10 goal scorers chart.

● Kris finishes as Partick Thistle's outright top League scorer for the 5th time and becomes the first man in history to do so. Note: Wille Sharp also registered 5 seasons (3 of which were in the Southern League), but his total figure in 1944-45 was shared with 2 others.

● Steven Lawless (3311 mins) pips Callum Booth (3304 mins) as the Jag with most competitive game time for Thistle in 2015-16.

● The great steady predictables lose 16 out of 38 Premiership matches for the third season-in-a-row. :D

ongoing sequences:

● 40 consecutive competitive appearances for Steven Lawless, 9th Aug 2015 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Callum Booth - 46 games; 14th Mar 2015 to 9th Apr 2016. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games; 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 48 competitive away games without a penalty award, 1st Mar 2014 to date. (Longest run since: 64 games; 17th Apr 1948 to 3rd Mar 1951. Club-record: 73 games; 1st Apr 1911 to 7th Nov 1914.)

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