11th Feb 2017 St Johnstone 0 Partick Thistle 1 (Scottish Cup 5th Round)

matches:2016-17: ← 35game 3637 →

	Tommy Wright	Alan Archibald	39y, 6m, 29d

		Sean Welsh; Niall Keown; Ade Azeez
		Mustapha Dumbuya; Christie Elliott; Kris Doolan

		Adam Barton (1-0, 7 mins)
		Steven Lawless (1-0, 7 mins)
Steven MacLean; Danny Swanson		Sean Welsh; Danny Devine

David Wotherspoon (Blair Alston, HT); Chris Millar (Liam Craig, 73 mins); Graham Cummins (Chris Kane, 73 mins)		Ade Azeez (Kris Doolan, 84 mins)

	Zander Clark	Tomáš Černý	31y, 10m, 1d
	future Jag Steven Anderson	Ryan Edwards	23y, 2m, 25d
	Chris Millar	Sean Welsh	26y, 10m, 27d
	Murray Davidson	Liam Lindsay	21y, 3m, 30d
	Steven MacLean	Danny Devine	24y, 5m, 4d
	David Wotherspoon	Niall Keown	21y, 10m, 6d
	Danny Swanson	Abdul Osman	29y, 11m, 15d
	Joe Shaughnessy	Adam Barton	26y, 1m, 4d
	future Jag Richard Foster	David Amoo	25y, 9m, 29d
	Brian Easton	Ade Azeez	23y, 1m, 3d
	Graham Cummins	Steven Lawless	25y, 9m, 30d

			25y, 5m, 28d

	Alan Mannus	Mark Ridgers	26y, 6m, 2d
	future Jag Tam Scobbie	Kris Doolan	30y, 2m, 0d
	future Jag Blair Alston	Chris Erskine	30y, 0m, 3d
	former Jag Paul Paton	Jason Banton	24y, 1m, 27d
	Keith Watson	Kevin Nisbet	19y, 11m, 3d
	Chris Kane	Andy McCarthy	18y, 3m, 22d
	Liam Craig

notes

Thistle generally in playing order, opposition in squad number order.
Thistle filled only 6 of their 7 allocated bench slots.

TTA report

A 4th straight win in Perth thanks to a Barton side-foot from a Lawless cross on the break (7). Amoo and Lindsay were denied by excellent saves and it was only in the last 20 minutes that Saints applied any real pressure. Cerny was busy and a couple of efforts flew narrowly past leaving Thistle worthy winners.

Media report

Scott Davie, 11-Feb-2017, bbc.com

Partick Thistle reached the Scottish Cup quarter-finals for the first time in nine years with their second win over St Johnstone in Perth this season. Adam Barton gave Thistle an early lead when he side-footed home a Steven Lawless cross after a swift counter. Saints went close via Richard Foster and Danny Swanson, but needed a superb Zander Clark save to deny David Amoo. Steven MacLean, Blair Alston and Chris Kane all had second-half chances but Thistle held their nerve to progress. Having won 2-1 in Perth in the Premiership in October, this was the fifth successive meeting between the sides won by the away team. Partick have gone 406 minutes without scoring a league goal but it took just seven minutes of this Scottish Cup tie for them to make the breakthrough at one of their favourite grounds. Barton provided the final touch for his second goal of the season with an astute side-footed finish after Sean Welsh and Lawless carved open the Saints defence down the left side. It was no more than the Jags deserved for a high-intensity first-half performance that did not allow the hosts to settle, while allowing Thistle to break forward at pace. In fact they really should have gone in at the interval with a more comfortable lead as Ade Azeez saw a shot deflected wide by Joe Shaughnessy and Amoo was only denied by a brilliant Clark save.

St Johnstone found it difficult to negotiate their way through a well-drilled back three where Danny Devine played between the on-loan Niall Keown and Liam Lindsay. Swanson went close with a couple of long-range efforts before the break while MacLean volleyed over the bar just after it as the hosts started to show more urgency. Thistle continued to carry a real threat themselves though and Welsh fizzed a shot narrowly wide before setting up Lindsay for a great opportunity with a wickedly flighted free-kick on the hour mark. Once again the impressive Clark rescued his side with a great block and Amoo saw his shot from the rebound blocked by Saints skipper Steven Anderson. Alston was only inches away from a leveller with a shot that swerved narrowly wide of the far post, while fellow substitute Kane hooked an acrobatic effort just over the bar as they failed to dig out a replay. Tommy Wright was unhappy with referee Craig Thomson during the home defeat by Celtic last week and he appeared similarly unimpressed with Steven McLean's decisions at times during this game either. However that was an indication of what a good job Thistle's players did in frustrating opponents who have struggled to put away teams from the bottom six at home during the current campaign.

Reaction

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald (speaking to the BBC):

I think we deserved the win. We started brightly after making a number of changes and a change of shape as well so I was really pleased. It's all about scoring when you are on top in games and we did that even though it would have been easier if we had taken one or two of the other ones we made. Zander Clark made a couple of wonder saves as he always seems to do against us but we worked our goal really well.

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright (speaking to the BBC):

It's never nice to lose in any cup competition but we lost that game in the first 20 minutes. I don't think we started the game very well. It was about 18 minutes before we made a tackle. Second half we were better and made some decent chances but we were always vulnerable to the counter-attack from Partick, which they did very well. Overall we didn't do enough to win the game.

Partick Thistle match-winner Adam Barton (speaking to the BBC):

It's great to get another goal but the important thing is we got the win to get through to the quarter-finals. The good thing is that we did score because we have been playing well in recent weeks but the ball hasn't been going in the net and even today we had three or four good chances. Now we need to knuckle down and make sure we get more goals because we want to make sure we start winning more league matches.

THIRTEEN DECADES OF SCOTTISH CUP QUARTER FINALS FOR THISTLE

● 26-year-old Sean Welsh plays his last game for Thistle.

● Adam Barton scores his last goal for Thistle.

● Abdul Osman makes his 100th competitive appearance as a Jag.

● For the fifth successive meeting between these two sides, the game is won by the away team.

● Thistle's victory extends the impressive H2H club-record against the Saints, now reset at 4 consecutive competitive game away wins, 17th October 2015 to date. High standards are being set.

● This was Thistle's third attempt to win a Scottish Cup tie in Perth - success at last.

● Thistle register back-to-back clean-sheets in the Scottish Cup for the first time in 10 years. It's doubtful, however, that the club-record will ever be broken. Amazingly, Thistle returned EIGHT consecutive clean-sheets across the spectrum of two Scottish Cup campaigns in 1921 and 1922!

● Thistle progress to their 32nd Scottish Cup Quarter Final.

● Thistle qualify for the Scottish Cup Quarter Finals for the first time in the 2010s and have now reached that stage in THIRTEEN different decades. Only Hibernian (14), Celtic (14) and Rangers (15) have bettered this remarkable feat of consistency.

ongoing sequences:

● 4 consecutive League games in which Thistle have failed to score; 31st Dec 2016 to date. (Longest run since: 4 games; 22nd Aug 2015 to 19th Sep 2015. Joint club-record: 5 games; 13th Nov 2004 to 4th Dec 2004 & 27th Mar 2010 to 19th Apr 2010.)

● 31 consecutive competitive appearances for Ade Azeez, 15th July 2016 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Ryan Edwards - 39 games; 2nd Mar 2016 to 31st Dec 2016. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games; 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 56 away League games without a penalty award, 1st Mar 2014 to date. (Longest run since the club-record: 62 games; 1st Apr 1911 to 7th Nov 1914.)

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