The Thistle Archive

Partick Thistle increased the gap ahead of bottom club Ross County to four points after holding Aberdeen to a goalless draw. The play at Firhill was frantic and lacking creative quality, although the point was welcome to Thistle. Graeme Shinnie ought to have scored for the visitors in the first half, but shot straight at Tomas Cerny. Partick were more imposing after the break, and Steven Lawless saw an effort pushed away by Freddie Woodman.

In truth, a featureless draw was in keeping with the tone of the game on a dark and dismal afternoon. It was, though, an improvement of sorts for Partick, who went into the game having lost their last eight meetings with Aberdeen. A Partick side struggling after three straight defeats was forced into a number of changes ahead of this one. Abdul Osman, Niall Keown and Mustapha Dumbuya all failed to make it. Kris Doolan, Ryan Edwards and Blair Spittal all dropped to the bench, with manager Alan Archibald admitting a new approach was needed in a bid to stop the rot. In dreary conditions in Glasgow, it was a first half to forget as both sides cancelled each other out. There was plenty of endeavour but very little in the way of clear-cut goalmouth action. Shinnie had the best chance approaching the break. Ryan Christie whipped in a neat cross from the right but when the ball broke to the Aberdeen captain, he could only fire low into the body of the falling Cerny in the Partick goal. It was indicative of the football on show. Stevie May, selected ahead of Adam Rooney, also had a chance shortly afterwards. Again the ball came from the right, but the centre-forward could only turn the cross into the side netting at the near post. He should have done better.

Thistle had more chances in the first two minutes of the second half than they did in the entire first. Lawless had a decent effort well saved by Woodman on the angle and May had to head off his own goal-line after a looping header from Chris Erskine. These were, at last, some reasons to be cheerful for the home fans huddled inside Firhill. Christie watched his low drive slip just past the post from 18 yards out as the game threatened to turn interesting, but it quickly slipped back to mediocrity. Both sides were desperate for points for very different reasons and both pushed and stretched the game as the clock ticked down. Kenny McLean fired a free kick just over the bar while, at the other end, substitute Spittal saw a decent effort blocked just inside the box. Partick will see it as a precious point against a side who have a very good record at Firhill, but it was an uninspiring encounter all round.

Thistle manager Alan Archibald was satisfied with the outcome; the Glasgow side face a run of difficult fixtures, but the point moved them four clear of bottom-placed Ross County:

Hopefully it will be a really precious and good point, with the games coming up. Aberdeen are a good side and we've done well against them. We've got to build on it. There were a lot of good performances and a lot of positives to take from it. We've got a tough run of games coming up, but we've got to take points from them. We had a chance to break a couple of times and you could see they were a bit tentative. We've lost late goals in the last couple of games, but we're delighted to have seen it out. Our game management was good.

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes felt his side was lacking in the final third because his players were "too anxious" to score:

We were unconvincing in the final bit - where you win and lose. We see it as two points dropped. We're desperate to do well, but we've got to make sure we don't make things more difficult for ourselves. There was plenty willingness, plenty effort and you could see how much trying to get the win meant to the players. I reminded them that they're good players and not to get too anxious, not to get too rushed, not to let the desperation and the need to get three points overtake their abilities. The win will come for us. One or two are just a wee bit rusty and uncharacteristic at times. I'm talking about the players who bring that dynamic to us, who are capable of going past people and finding that right weight of pass or shot on goal. When you're going well and your game's in a good place, you can be instinctive and natural and we've got brilliant lads here who are working really hard for the club. I've just asked us to simplify things, be more instinctive in that last bit and trust ourselves that wee bit more to get that opening. It's our job to keep supporting the players to bring the performances they're capable of.

bbc.com

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