The Thistle Archive

Defending champions Celtic survived a late penalty claim to earn a 1-0 win over Partick Thistle at Firhill. Olivier Ntcham volleyed Celtic in front by virtue of a deflection off captain Scott Brown. Kris Doolan passed up a golden opportunity to equalise when he put a free header over from close range. There was late controversy when referee Andrew Dallas waved away strong shouts for a penalty after Nir Bitton appeared to shove Miles Storey in the box. But Celtic, not at their fluid best, survived to maintain their winning start to the season and extend their unbeaten domestic run to 51 matches.

Thistle started one of their new signings, Conor Sammon, and the other, Storey came off the bench, as did Leigh Griffiths. James Forrest played through the middle until the striker made his appearance on the hour-mark. Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said before kick-off that he was hopeful of bringing in another player, possibly even before the Astana game in the Champions League on Wednesday night. Celtic have been pushing hard to resign Patrick Roberts from Manchester City, a player whom the visiting support adore and a man whose name they chanted during the game. Was Rodgers referring to Roberts when talking about a new arrival? He wouldn't say. How Celtic people will hope that he comes back. How the rest of Scottish football will sigh if he does. It's hard enough to lay a glove on Rodgers' team as they are. The Jags were one of the few sides who had any joy from Celtic last season in domestic competition, taking a 1-1 draw away from Parkhead. The last time they were at Firhill, of course, Celtic won 5-0, and they started off brightly here again, without ever hitting full stride.

Filling in for Griffiths, Forrest had two early chances to opening the scoring, his first effort beaten away well by Tomas Cerny, his second driven wide of goal. The Jags' goalkeeper then made a fine save from a thumping Bitton free-kick. Celtic got their breakthrough when Jordan Turnbull's header was volleyed goalwards by Ntcham, the ball deflecting past Cerny off what Thistle claimed was the arm of Brown, not that Brown knew anything about it. He turned his body away from Ntcham's shot and the ball looked to come off him and find the net. Had it not, Cerny would probably have dealt with it comfortably enough. They felt a bit hard done by there, but Thistle had an excellent opportunity to wipe out Celtic's lead early in the second half. Christie Elliott's cross was met by the head of Doolan, who had lost Bitton. From close range, Doolan had to score. For such a dependable striker, you would have expected him to. He didn't. His header flew over. Celtic could not give themselves the cushion of a second goal against a resolute Thistle defence. Even when they looked like they were going to add a second, Callum Booth cleared off the line from Jozo Simunovic. The Jags had a huge penalty shout right at the end when Storey went down under a clumsy challenge from Bitton. Celtic, and their uncomfortable makeshift centre-half, looked like they got away with it. Thistle were left frustrated and angered. For Rodgers, another win, but a problem to solve, too. Does he dare go into Wednesday night's critical game with Astana with the Israeli at the heart of his defence?

Partick Thistle boss Alan Archibald felt his side should have been given a penalty:

It's a foul anywhere else on the pitch. It's a big call in the last minute against Celtic. You don't often get them. We had one in midweek, we usually get one a year so we're not getting two in four days. We had one good chance [Doolan's] and the late penalty shout, we worked ever so hard, it's not easy to contain them. I know it's frustrating for our fans that we didn't come out and have a real go but you saw at the end there when we went with two strikers and they can quickly turn you over.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers believes referee Andrew Dallas was in a good position to make the penalty call, and felt his side deserved to claim all three points:

I'd need to see it again, it looked from where I was that Nir (Bitton) got a toe to it, and he was the right side of the defender. The pitch was maybe a bit slippy at that stage which is perhaps why the boy went down, but the ref was in a great position and he didn't give it. We will play better, of course - we were outstanding in the week [the 5-0 win over Kilmarnock] - but tonight is a game we will look back on at the end of the season and hopefully say it was an important three points. We could have been more comfortable in the game if we had put our chances away, but when it is still 1-0 you have to defend, and I thought the players were comfortable even though there was bit of pressure around our 18-yard box. We didn't quite perform as well as I would want - our standards are much higher than we showed - but it shows the resilience and mentality in the team to get the result tonight. That's maybe one of the games we would have drawn last season. So it's good the players can now see out games.

bbc.com

Option 1: extended highlights, with commentary

Irvine Bhoy

BT Sport

Option 2: short highlights, no commentary

SPFL YouTube

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