3rd Feb 2018 Motherwell 1 Partick Thistle 1 (SPFL Premiership - game 25)

matches:2017-18: ← 33game 3435 →

Match Information

			Stephen Robinson		Alan Archibald			40y, 6m, 21d
					Mustapha Dumbuya; Adam Barton; Kris Doolan; Ryan Edwards
					Callum Booth; Chris Erskine; Conor Sammon; Steven Lawless
Nadir Çiftçi (1-1, 77 mins)					Kris Doolan (1-0, 53 mins)
Charles Dunne (1-1, 77 mins)					Martin Woods (1-0, 53 mins)
Richard Tait; Carl McHugh					Abdul Osman; Paul McGinn; Mustapha Dumbuya; Ryan Edwards
Stephen Hendrie (Richard Tait, HT); Craig Tanner (Elliott Frear, 55 mins); Chris Cadden (Deimantas Petravičius, 88 mins)					Kris Doolan (Blair Spittal, 84 mins)
			Trevor Carson		Tomáš Černý			32y, 9m, 24d
			Charles Dunne		Paul McGinn			27y, 3m, 12d
			Tom Aldred		Mustapha Dumbuya			30y, 5m, 27d
			Cédric Kipré		Baily Cargill			22y, 6m, 29d
			future Jag Stephen Hendrie		Niall Keown			22y, 9m, 29d
			Chris Cadden		Adam Barton			27y, 0m, 27d
			Carl McHugh		Abdul Osman			30y, 11m, 7d
			Allan Campbell		Martin Woods			32y, 1m, 2d
			Curtis Main		Kris Doolan			31y, 1m, 23d
			Nadir Çiftçi		Ryan Edwards			24y, 2m, 17d
			Craig Tanner		Miles Storey			24y, 0m, 30d
								27y, 9m, 11d
			Russell Griffiths		Ryan Scully			25y, 3m, 5d
			Richard Tait		Blair Spittal			22y, 1m, 15d
			Liam Grimshaw		Chris Erskine			30y, 11m, 26d
			Gaël Bigirimana		Danny Devine			25y, 4m, 27d
			Elliott Frear		James Penrice			19y, 1m, 12d
			Andy Rose		Andy McCarthy			19y, 3m, 14d
			Deimantas Petravičius

notes

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

Match Report

TTA report

Thistle coped well with Motherwell's cynical, robust style, restricted them to only a few serious chances and made a few of their own. Dumbuya and Edwards went close. Cerny had a magnificent reaction save then Doolan, unmarked, headed home a free-kick (53) but Motherwell equalised (77). A fair result.

Media report

Jonathan Sutherland, 03-Feb-2018, bbc.com

Motherwell striker Nadir Ciftci scored his first goal for the club to earn a draw against Partick Thistle. The visitors opened the scoring when the unmarked striker Kris Doolan headed Martin Woods' free-kick past Trevor Carson. It was the 99th league goal of Doolan's career and his seventh of the season so far. Motherwell kept probing, though, and Ciftci lashed home after Charles Dunne headed the ball down.

It was 1996 the last time Partick Thistle beat Motherwell at Fir Park - a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Tommy Turner and Gregg Watson. However, the Thistle players of 2018 almost found themselves 1-0 down as early as the third minute. Craig Tanner curled a cross towards the back post and there was Ciftci, who poked the ball towards goal. Just as it looked like the ball might sneak into the net, Partick Thistle goalkeeper Tomas Cerny got a hand to it to turn the ball round the post. Ryan Edwards had scored a fine goal against St Johnstone the previous weekend and he should have fired Thistle 1-0 up in the 14th minute. Miles Storey swung a cross to the back post and Edwards flew in with a diving header, but the ball carried over the bar. Main had hit the ground running since arriving at Fir Park, but he failed to add to his goal tally when sent clean through on goal, opting to lob the keeper only for Cerny to scramble back to make the save. Overall, excitement was in short supply, although the crowd became animated following a heavy challenge from Abdul Osman on Motherwell midfielder Alan Campbell. Despite loud claims for tougher action from the home fans, referee Nick Walsh opted to show Osman a yellow card.

Come the second half there was a big chance for Motherwell from a Chris Cadden corner. The Partick Thistle defence scrambled clear and although Motherwell captain Carl McHugh seemed to claim the ball had crossed the line, the officials waved play on. Almost immediately, Partick Thistle took the lead. Woods flighted a free kick into the box and there was Doolan with the perfect header to put his side 1-0 in front. Motherwell thought they had equalised when Main nodded into the net from close range, but the assistant referee had his flag up for offside. The home side would not have to wait much longer for an equaliser, though. It came from Ciftci, after Dunne headed the ball into his path and the striker then fired past Cerny to claim his first goal for the Steelmen. It sent the home crowd into a mixture of rapture and relief.

Reaction

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

I felt we were defending and coping really well with Motherwell, I thought we dealt with with most of the things they threw at us. I thought we did enough to just hang on in there. We should defend it better, we have got three centre backs in there to do a job and we just switched off for that second and let Ciftci to turn and finish it. You can always rely on Kris Doolan. He got his chance and he took it, I thought his overall team play was good as well.

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson (speaking to the BBC):

I do [think Motherwell could have won the match]. Trevor Carson's not had a save to make all match. We got punished for a set play which was extremely frustrating when you have designated people to mark and we have to rectify that straight away. People have designated markers, they didn't do their job but we will deal with that. I thought the boys showed super character again. It was a frustrating first half because we had chances, we had a goal disallowed and we had a lot of pressure in the second half. The least we deserved was a point.

Scrapbook

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Daily Record, 5th February, 2018

The Sun, 5th February, 2018

Motherwell Times, 7th February, 2018

Video Highlights

Option 1: extended highlights

(credit: Motherwell FC )

Option 2: short highlights

(credit: SPFL YouTube )

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Stats Watch

FIR PARK HOODOO CONTINUES

● Impressively, Thistle keep a first-half clean-sheet for an 8th consecutive game.

● Kris Doolan nets his 7th competitive goal of the season and joins Blair Spittal at the summit of the competitive goals chart. He's bidding to become the first Thistle player in history to finish as our top scorer in five consecutive seasons, and furthermore could do so in all 3 of the main categories ("All Games", "Competitive" and "League").

● Thistle go 14 competitive games without a win at Fir Park (10.08.2002 to date), an extension of the H2H record. 13 League games without a win at Fir Park (10.08.2002 to date), also extends the H2H record in that category.

● With this draw, Thistle avoid what would have been a new club-record of 5 League defeats on the bounce at Fir Park.

● Dating back to October 2014, Jags have now played 13 competitive games against 'Well, without a repeated outcome.

● Thistle have now played 75 away League matches without a penalty award, a run which is now only 26 days away from stretching to a whole 4 years.

ongoing sequences:

● 54 consecutive competitive appearances for Adam Barton, 28th Dec 2016 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Aaron Taylor-Sinclair - 55 games; 27th Oct 2012 to 18th Jan 2014. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games; 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

● 75 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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