The Thistle Archive

26-Feb-2022, raithrovers.net

Rovers search for a first league win of 2022 continued as John McGlynn’s side held promotion rivals Partick Thistle to a 0-0 draw at Stark’s Park. Like many of the other SPFL Championship games, the battle that commenced at Stark’s Park was a fairly even one with either side restricted to a number of half chances in either half as Rovers clung onto the final Promotion Play-Off spot for yet another week. This weekend only three goals were scored over five SPFL Championship matches (after Hamilton Accies and Inverness played out a 1-1 draw on Friday night as well as bottom side Queen of the South’s 1-0 win over Ayr United).

Rovers looked to try and make up for last weeks poor start against Kilmarnock by going for the jugular from kick off, and had a dangerous free kick from 25 yards inside the opening two minutes. Dario Zanatta’s effort from distance was well saved by Sneddon. Rovers had yet another opportunity to get themselves in front inside a quarter of an hour after some good running from Reghan Tumilty saw him slip Ethon Varian in behind the Thistle backline, in which the Irishman looked to square the ball along the six-yard line for someone to tap in but nobody was there to finish the move off. Rovers would try again with 23 minutes on the clock as Sam Stanton delivered a long ball into the box, where after a shot shy attack, the ball fell to Ross Matthews whose drive from the edge of the area was held on to by Sneddon. Rovers could’ve had a penalty just shy of the half hour mark, but for the perception of Willie Collum after Christophe Berra was upended in the Thistle box, but the man in the middle waved play on. Thistle tried to get into the game and had their first real effort of note with nine first half minutes to play. As the ball broke in the middle of the park which saw Docherty advance with the ball and try his luck from distance but MacDonald was on hand to parry as Berra hooked clear. McGlynn’s side were unlucky not to be ahead moments before the break as Sam Stanton tried his luck with a shot from distance but his well struck effort was drilled wide of the mark.

Thistle had the home side panicking six minutes after the interval after a lapse in concentration and a shout for offside saw Cammy Smith pick up the ball on the right hand side and see his shot across goal go wide of the mark after Turner beat the offside trap. Thistle came on strong again with 25 minutes to play and again had the home supporters nervous when a well worked move found the ball being fed into the feet of Brian Graham on the edge of the box, but his right footed from 18-yards flew just over the wrong side of the bar. Nerves looked to set in as both sides looked to try and get a winner as the clock ticked into the final fifteen minutes. Birthday boy Reghan Tumilty (who was a threat all afternoon) with a rampant display down the right managed to tease a cunning ball for Zanatta to run onto and deliver into the box, but the nerves were clear to see as nobody took a gamble to get onto it as it trickled out of play for a throw. Aidan Connolly was also a threat all afternoon, and he thought he’d be the man to win it for Rovers inside the final four minutes as he picked the ball up and carried it into the penalty area bypassing a sea of legs as he looked to bag a winner, but he bit off more than he could chew as he was crowded out and the ball was hacked away as Thistle held on for a point in a hotly contested tie at Stark’s Park.

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall, via ptfc.co.uk

I felt a draw was the right result for today’s game. It was a pretty rubbish game of football played in pretty rubbish conditions today with the way the wind was swirling about and it can’t have been great to watch – I certainly didn’t enjoy watching it. John changed his style of play today for Raith which caught me a little by surprise, they usually play a little bit more but I felt we adapted well to it. In the first half we tried to build but it didn’t really work. Raith were the better side in the first half, although we did really well defensively to restrict them to practically nothing. In the second half we came into it more and I felt we had the better chances in that second half. We made the subs at half time with the view to going a little bit longer and we’ve had a couple of good chances but I felt we were worthy of our point. When you look at the results around the league, there was only one goal in four games which is pretty mad but we’ll take the point and head back to Glasgow to get ready for Tuesday night.

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NO JOY AT STARK'S PARK

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