The Thistle Archive

Goals from Stuart Armstrong and Kieran Tierney ensured Celtic returned to winning ways against Partick Thistle. After a drab opening, midfielder Armstrong rocketed home a left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty box. Odsonne Edouard went close after the break before Tierney combined with Scott Sinclair and slammed in a second. The champions, whose 69-game unbeaten domestic run was ended emphatically by Hearts, climb five points clear at the Scottish Premiership summit. Thistle remain two points adrift at the foot of the table, having won just three of their 19 league fixtures this term.

Backlash. Reaction. Whirlwind start. All pre-match cautions of what would be inflicted upon the lowly visitors after Celtic's hammering at Tynecastle. Pedestrian was perhaps a more fitting appraisal of the first half hour, a combination of discipline and structure from Thistle and a slow, overly-deliberate start from Celtic. That suited the Jags, who looked largely comfortable, other than when Kristoffer Ajer nodded Armstrong's fabulous delivery over from six yards, then Tierney's surging run set up Sinclair, who also fired his effort too high. So far, so good for a Thistle outfit who have not won an away league match since March. Their resistance was broken, though, by a touch of brilliance from Armstrong, the former Dundee United man looking more like the swashbuckling figure of last season. The 25-year-old gathered possession on the 18-yard line and did what no-one expected, unleashing a sensational left-foot howitzer high across Tomas Cerny and into his net.

Celtic held that lead at the break, and the second period was more open, Thistle endeavouring to create and the hosts appearing far sharper, with Tierney perhaps their biggest threat. Edouard, preferred to Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele as the fulcrum of the Celtic attack, had two chances to double the hosts' advantage. The Frenchman struck the first from a central area but his connection wasn't pure and Cerny saved well to his left. Sinclair then teed up the teenage striker, but Cerny was again well-placed to deny him. Eventually Celtic made the game safe with some incisive interplay between Sinclair and Tierney releasing the tireless young defender and he blasted home. Tierney had been inspirational throughout and deserved some reward for his display. Dedryck Boyata ought to have added a third from close range late in the game, but by then Celtic were well on their way to re-establishing a five-point cushion at the top of the table. Thistle meanwhile can perhaps take some heart from their first-half grit in what proved to be too great a task for Alan Archibald's men.

Brendan Rodgers praised his Celtic side for bouncing back from their surprise hammering by Hearts with a comfortable home win:

I said to the players, it's how you're defined as a player and team - how you respond to disappointment. It was a great response. Obviously they showed their real qualities tonight. We had games against Partick at home last year that we drew 1-1 and won 1-0, but tonight, particularly second half, we had good control of the game. We had to be patient first-half and maybe could've played forward a bit more into the space to find the areas better. We got a brilliant goal from Stuart, it's a great strike and it gives us some breathing space in the game. We fixed some things at half-time in order to position ourselves better, to try to get more attacking momentum, and I thought we were much better second-half. We scored a very good second goal and had a few chances. I was very pleased, our response was great. That's how these types of games are at times. Alan Archibald sets his teams up very well so we had to have patience in the game and the first goal was vital. We found it, then our fluency was much better and second half we were very good. It's a young team and they showed great maturity in the game to keep the clean sheet - we didn't have too many scares this evening. And like I say, solid defensively and looked creative going forward.

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald admits his team, two points adrift at the foot of the Premiership, struggled in attack:

We didn't pass the ball. We put in a lot of hard work but you need to take care of the ball and we didn't have enough guys wanting to play tonight, maybe that's because of our league position. We saw out the opening period but we didn't manage to lay a glove on them. Our concentration levels in defence were a lot better. We've got a massive game coming up against Hamilton and we want to get off the bottom of the league before Christmas.

bbc.com

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