The Thistle Archive

03-Sep-2022, ptfc.co.uk

Partick Thistle were looking for their fourth win on the spin in all competitions as they made the trip to Gayfield Park to take on Dick Campbell’s Arbroath. The two teams had met during the week in the Premier Sports Cup when an Aidan Fitzpatrick goal won the game for the Jags as they progressed to the quarter-finals. Now Thistle made the trip up to Angus for league action against the Lichties having only won once in their last 11 visits to Gayfield. Ian McCall made three alterations to the starting line-up from the Tuesday night cup victory. Cole McKinnon returned to the first XI in place of Stuart Bannigan while Brian Graham came in for Anton Dowds. The final change was an enforced one with Aidan Fitzpatrick replacing the injured Scott Tiffoney.

It took the Maryhill men until the 82nd minute to find the opener in midweek but they almost had a breakthrough within two minutes in Arbroath. A Kyle Turner corner to the back post was met firmly by Kevin Holt but his effort was straight at Derek Gaston who gathered after blocking. Then at the other end, Arbroath had their first sight of goal. A ball in by Mason Hancock from the left flank was met first-time by Bobby Linn but the Lichties legend fired his shot over the bar. The game then settled into a less entertaining pattern with neither team finding it easy to break the other down. Thistle had pops at goal from range through Lawless and Muirhead but they didn’t truly trouble Derek Gaston though the former Morton ‘stopper had to be on his toes to deny Harry Milne’s shot from a 45 degree angle after Kevin Holt’s shot deflected into the left-back’s path. Thistle finished the first half well on top but they weren’t finding the killer pass despite picking up countless threatening position. Things were a bit more promising at the start of the second period when Kyle Turner broke through into the Arbroath but saw his left-footed shot saved by the legs of Gaston.

Shortly after that, Arbroath were reduced to ten men as Scott Allan was dismissed for two quickfire yellow cards. The midfielder fouled Aidan Fitzpatrick on the Thistle left but play went on and when the ball came back into the centre of the park, the former Hibs man clattered Ross Docherty. The referee felt the two challenges merited a booking each and Allan was given his marching orders. Thistle sent plenty forward in search of the winning goal and Ian McCall even sent on four substitutes to seek out a decider. In the end it was one of those substitutes that found the winner as Anton Dowds netted his third goal of the season. A Ross Docherty shot thundered off the post and ricocheted back to the number 10 who coolly guided the rebound into the back of the net to give the Jags the lead against his former club. A second quickly followed as Cole McKinnon bagged goal number two in Thistle colours. The midfielder picked up the ball just inside the box and slithered through a couple of challenges before firing a left-footed shot back across goal and into the far corner to wrap up the points.

Thistle manager Ian McCall:

We left it late and we were a little bit lacklustre in that first half but should still have been ahead. We played ok in the first half, and certainly were dominant. Second half we started to move it around and obvuiously the sending off affected them, although it's not always as easy as we made it look, although it didn't look as though a goal was coming. We missed some good chances and just that final ball wasn't right and there were a couple of careless offsides. It was a great finish from Anton and then another fabulous goal from Cole McKinnon, who was excellent.

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