The Thistle Archive

Kilmarnock won at Partick Thistle to move closer to fourth place and leave their hosts a point adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership. Stuart Findlay headed home from Jordan Jones' cross to give Killie a first-half advantage. Thistle's Chris Erskine and Conor Sammon were denied by goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald early in the second period. Stephen O'Donnell had the ball in the net for the visitors but was penalised for handball. Steve Clarke's Kilmarnock, who have won five in a row in the league and are unbeaten in 10, now trail fourth-placed Hibernian by seven points and could reduce that gap further if they win their game in hand away to Hamilton Academical next Saturday. Thistle started the day bottom on goal difference but Ross County's draw with Hibs opens up a one-point gap between the basement sides. Clarke's men last lost a Premiership game on 27 January - the date of Thistle's last league win.

The five changes Jags boss Alan Archibald had made to his starting line-up underlined his displeasure at the showing of his side up in Dingwall in the midweek 4-0 loss to Ross County. His team for this one started fine and restricted Kris Boyd to one looping header in the opening 20 minutes. But in Youssouf Mulumbu, Kilmarnock have a luxury that the Jags do not. The visitors were often able to rely on his composed, careful touch - so often simplifying and defusing pressured situations in the centre of the park with a neat bit of skill and clever pass. The former West Brom and Norwich man also showed his creativity when releasing Jones with a perfectly weighted through ball. The Northern Ireland international raced on to it and was denied by the on-rushing Thistle goalkeeper Ryan Scully, before Boyd sent it goalwards only to see Christie Elliott divert the ball wide. The hosts briefly threatened after Blair Spittal's free-kick that resulted in Sammon leaping to head the ball off the top of the bar. Kilmarnock broke the deadlock through Findlay's emphatic header into the top left corner - a second goal of the season for the on-loan Newcastle defender who was still forward following a free-kick. He made the most of celebrating it by way of a bizarre bit of dancing with Jones - who had supplied the cross.

Abdul Osman's wayward pass when trying to find Elliott just before the break caused frustration between those players and in the stands. The Jags needed to keep their heads. The early second-half signs were that they had, as Erskine thumped a shot straight at MacDonald from the edge of the box. The Killie goalkeeper could not hold it but his defenders closed Sammon down quickly. Sammon had another chance moments later but his low, deft touch was blocked by the keeper. Then Erskine watched his effort deflected away after Spittal's nice pass. At the other end ex-Jag O'Donnell had a close-range strike ruled out after the ball had bounced up on to his arm in the build-up. With 25 minutes remaining, Thistle introduced prolific scorer Kris Doolan as a substitute, but nothing properly fell to him and it ended up being another despairing result for the Maryhill men.

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald:

I thought the performance was better. Ultimately we lose but there wasn't a lot in the game. You can see things aren't quite falling for us but there was a lot more desire from the players. It was terrible defending from us for the goal, I will say that. Things don't go for you when you're down at the bottom of the table but hopefully it falls going into the last five games. Massive games now and they become cup finals. I'm happy doing my job. What the board say and what the board do isn't going to affect the players on the pitch at the moment. I didn't sense [frustration from the crowd] as I'm not in the crowd with them but I imagine they're frustrated - we all are because we're bottom of the table and we don't want to be there.

Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke:

Tough game today and we knew it would be. First half we were the better team but second half Thistle probably shaded it. I thought Kirk Broadfoot and Stuart Findlay were excellent second half. The players have shown great character and dug out another result. This time Stuart Findlay's goal was a proper header because his last one at St Johnstone was a little bit iffy. It was good quick thinking on the free-kick. The least said about the celebration the better. We'll just keep tallying up the points and at the end of the season we'll see where we are. We hope to be able to bring in quality additions in the summer but the best bit of business we've done in recent weeks is to sign up the vast majority of the squad and we'll continue to get one or two of them on longer contracts. We'll try to build something here at Kilmarnock.

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