The Thistle Archive

Miles Storey's fine first-half run and finish brought Partick Thistle victory against St Johnstone. The Englishman skilfully sped down the left and confidently placed a low effort across goalkeeper Zander Clark. It means the Jags have taken seven points from nine in their past three games and move off the foot of the Premiership. St Johnstone, on the other hand, have not scored or won in their past five matches.

With 13 goals at Inverness Caledonian Thistle in season 2015-16, Storey was signed up by Aberdeen last year but netted just twice for the Dons before moving to Glasgow. And in the space of a week the front man has shown signs of recapturing his form with the Highlanders, having sealed Thistle's first win over the season last week against Dundee. Against St Johnstone, Storey used more than the last third of the pitch to show his pace and composure, picking up the ball near halfway and setting off on an ultimately fruitful run down the left. It culminated in him beating Joe Shaughnessy and calmly stroking beyond Clark into the far corner. The 23-year-old was clearly buoyed and continued to pester the visiting defence, on one other occasion dispossessing Shaughnessy as he tried to clear.

It certainly had not been all one way, with Jags goalkeeper Tomas Cerny having to be sharp to deny both David Wotherspoon and Murray Davidson from close range. Blair Spittal arrowed a rising shot from distance by the post before St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright had to deal with first-half injuries to Stefan Scougall and Brian Easton by bringing on Scott Tanser and Michael O'Halloran. St Johnstone had not scored or won in their previous four outings and evidence of their lack of end product in front of goal came in the second half when Wotherspoon neatly played in Aaron Comrie, only for the young right-back to muster a weak effort straight at Cerny. Clark had to work harder at the other end to keep out Spittal's effort that was destined for squeezing in at the near post before a strong hand pushed it wide.

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald:

Really delighted with the manner of the win and getting another clean sheet - it's rounded off a good week. A win gives confidence and I think we saw that with the players after the Dundee game. Credit to them, they dealt with the pressure and got points on the board. But there's more to come from them. St Johnstone cut us open a couple of times in the first half but we regrouped and the goal settled us down. Our big three centre-backs headed away most things that came into our box.

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright:

In 2013-14 we went something like nine games without a win and 2014-15 was the same and the last two seasons we've had these runs. That's what this league is like but we'll not panic. It's incredible we're still in sixth and we still have a good opportunity to maintain top six. But yes, we have to start scoring goals or we're not going to win games. I'm angry, but it's a different type of angry because we've played well, so I'm angry for them that they didn't do enough with the ball.

bbc.com

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