19th Sep 2017 Partick Thistle 1 Rangers 3 (League Cup Quarter Final)

matches:2017-18: ← 12game 1314 →

Match Information

40y, 2m, 6d			Alan Archibald		Pedro Caixinha
Conor Sammon; Steven Lawless
Miles Storey; Chris Erskine
Kris Doolan (1-1, 90 mins)					Carlos Peña (0-1, 55 mins); Daniel Candeias (1-2, 94 mins); Eduardo Herrera (1-3, 99 mins)
Conor Sammon (1-1, 90 mins)					Daniel Candeias (0-1, 55 mins); Eduardo Herrera (1-2, 94 mins); Daniel Candeias (1-3, 99 mins)
Christie Elliott; Steven Lawless					Lee Hodson
Jordan Turnbull (Kris Doolan, 57 mins); Blair Spittal (Kevin Nisbet, 83 mins); Steven Lawless (Stuart Bannigan, 105 mins)					Carlos Peña (Jason Holt, 71 mins); Bruno Alves (Ross McCrorie, 76 mins); Declan John (Lee Hodson, 79 mins); Alfredo Morelos (Eduardo Herrera, FT)
24y, 10m, 21d			Ryan Scully		Jak Alnwick
26y, 10m, 28d			Paul McGinn		James Tavernier
26y, 3m, 24d			Christie Elliott		Declan John
22y, 10m, 20d			Jordan Turnbull		Fábio Cardoso
22y, 5m, 14d			Niall Keown		Bruno Alves
25y, 0m, 12d			Danny Devine		Ryan Jack
26y, 8m, 12d			Adam Barton		Graham Dorrans former Jag
21y, 9m, 0d			Blair Spittal		Josh Windass
30y, 10m, 13d			Conor Sammon		Daniel Candeias
23y, 10m, 2d			Ryan Edwards		Alfredo Morelos
26y, 5m, 7d			Steven Lawless		Carlos Peña
25y, 3m, 12d
20y, 0m, 13d			Jamie Sneddon		Wes Foderingham
25y, 0m, 2d			Stuart Bannigan		Euciodálcio Gomes
30y, 9m, 8d			Kris Doolan		Eduardo Herrera
26y, 9m, 6d			Milan Nitrianský		Lee Hodson future Jag
20y, 6m, 11d			Kevin Nisbet		Jason Holt
18y, 10m, 30d			Andy McCarthy		Aaron Nemane
					Ross McCrorie

notes

Both sides generally in playing order. Thistle filled only 6 of their 7 allocated bench slots.

Match Report

TTA report

AET. A glancing header (55) and several wasted chances meant Rangers only led 1-0 until Doolan's turn and high shot (90). Spurred on by the late equaliser, ET was a bitter disappointment and 2 goals (94 and 99) put Thistle on the back foot. An entertaining game with Thistle matching Rangers in spells.

Media report

Alasdair Lamont, 19-Sep-2017, bbc.com

Daniel Candeias and Eduardo Herrera scored in extra time to knock Partick Thistle out of the Scottish League Cup quarter-final. The visitors had to regroup after Kris Doolan equalised in the 90th minute. Carlos Pena had opened the scoring with a second-half header in his first start for the Ibrox side. Rangers progressed but also gathered injury concerns ahead of Saturday's Old Firm game, with Bruno Alves and Declan John both removed to receive treatment. Ibrox manager Pedro Caixinha had made three changes to his starting line up, with John and goalkeeper Jak Alnwick coming into the side along with Pena, who was accommodated by a change of shape to 4-3-3. Rangers started brightly, with Josh Windass spurning an opportunity early on, then Alfredo Morelos and Candeias both missed when one-on-one with Partick Thistle goalkeeper Ryan Scully.

Rangers were ultimately good value for their victory but not for the first time this season, they made life more difficult for themselves than seemed necessary. The tie should have been decided long before the original 90 minutes were up, but clear-cut chances came and went. They got away with that on this occasion but surely won't on Saturday against Celtic. The additional 30 minutes of football was not ideal preparation for that contest and amid their celebrations, Rangers supporters will hope Alves and John will be fit to play, with Lee Wallace also injured and Danny Wilson missing from the squad for this game. It was after Alves and John departed that Thistle really began to believe they could salvage the tie. They should have been further behind than just one goal. Pena's glancing header had given Rangers a cushion, but had Windass, Morelos and perhaps most glaringly Candeias taken chances, Caixhina would have been a lot more relaxed. Thistle grew in confidence as Rangers began to look more anxious and almost on the stroke of 90 minutes struck back when Doolan swivelled inside the six-yard box to fire high past Alnwick, who had produced three good saves to deny Partick Thistle striker Conor Sammon over the course of the match. Yet having taken the game into extra-time, Alan Archibald's Partick Thistle side quickly relinquished the hard-won parity.

Just as they had at the beginning of the second half, Rangers started extra-time strongly and Candeias made amends for his astonishing earlier miss - when he'd blasted over the bar after rounding Scully - by cutting in from the right before lashing the ball low past the keeper. And soon after, Herrera cutely flicked the ball beyond Scully to give Rangers the kind of advantage that had eluded them earlier in the evening. Thistle's wait for a first semi-final since 2002 goes on, as does Rangers' quest for a first major trophy since 2011.

Reaction

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

It was a fantastic game to watch, just disappointing to lose. I thought the boys put so much in, we were in the ascendancy when we scored, and it's hard to put your finger on extra time, and why we dropped off. We changed our shape in the second half, we felt the lad No 27 [Pena] was causing a problem in the hole. We were just about to bring Kris Doolan on and they scored. We gave Rangers a lot of chances, which was disappointing, they came from a slack pass or dwelling on the ball. We deserved our goal when we got it, just disappointed with the reaction in extra-time, because I didn't see it coming.

Speaking to his club's website, Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha said:

I really like the performance, we created a lot of chances to kill the game earlier. I don't need to tell you much more about chances than the one Daniel faced the goal and placed the ball outside. [With regards to his second-half substitute]: Ross McCrorie is going to be one of the best centre halves in history, not just for this club but for this country. You just need to see what he did. He was brilliant. It's not about age or names. It’s about getting the chance to prove it. I have no concerns about him. I never had and never will have. If he needs to play on Saturday, he will play.

Scrapbook

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The Sun, 20th September, 2017

Stats Watch

MILESTONE MAN STRIKES AGAIN

● Thistle appear in their seventeenth League Cup Quarter Final, but fail to progress for the twelfth time.

● Kris Doolan scores Thistle's 300th competitive goal against Rangers and, with his third strike against them, can proudly reflect on having bagged 1% of the grand total.

● The number nine overtakes Davie McParland in the competitive scoring chart and now becomes Thistle's highest scorer since George Smith, 54 years ago.

● Ryan Scully's poor clean-sheet ratio continues to tumble downwards, now sitting at just 17.2%. By contrast, Tomáš Černý sits impressively on 34.7%.

● Thistle have now lost all seven of their home League Cup ties with Rangers, a run which is 64 years-old and counting.

● Thistle's monstrous run of 28 competitive games without a win versus Rangers rumbles on.

ongoing sequences:

● 6 competitive games without a win, 11th Aug 2017 to date. (Longest run since: 7 games, 15th Apr 2017 to 15th Jul 2017. Club-record: 26 games, 28th Nov 1908 to 28th Aug 1909.)

● 6 home League games without a win; 7th May 2017 to date. (Longest run since: 8 games; 27th Aug 2016 to 9th Dec 2016. Joint club-record: 15 games; 5th Dec 1908 to 11th Dec 1909 & 16th Apr 2013 to 1st Feb 2014.)

● 8 away League games without a win; 18th Mar 2017 to date. (Longest run since: 8 games; 29th Sep 2012 to 16th Feb 2013. Club-record: 26 games; 20th Mar 1935 to 29th Aug 1936.)

● 12 League games without a win; 15th Apr 2017 to date. (Longest run since: 12 games; 9th May 2015 to 26th Sep 2015. Club-record: 26 games; 28th Nov 1908 to 2nd Oct 1909.)

● 34 consecutive competitive appearances for Adam Barton, 28th Dec 2016 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Kris Doolan - 39 games; 15th Oct 2016 to 5th Aug 2017. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games; 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 65 away League games without a penalty award, 1st Mar 2014 to date. (A new club-record.)

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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