4th Mar 2023 Partick Thistle 3 Raith Rovers 0 (SPFL Championship - game 27)

matches:2022-23: ← 39game 4041 →

36y, 2m, 21d	Kris Doolan	Ian Murray

David Mitchell
Jamie Sneddon

Scott Tiffoney (1-0, 39‎ mins); Brian Graham (2-0, 53 mins); Scott Tiffoney (3-0, 63‎ mins)
Kyle Turner (1-0, 39‎ mins); Harry Milne (2-0, 53 mins); Steven Lawless (3-0, 63‎ mins)
Ross Docherty		Ross Millen; Scott McGill

Kyle Turner (Zander MacKenzie, 70 mins); Steven Lawless (Aidan Fitzpatrick, 70 mins); Scott Tiffoney (Lee Hodson, 77 mins); Brian Graham (Danny Mullen, 85 mins)		William Akio (Lewis Vaughan, 54 mins); Connor McBride (Scott McGill, 74 mins); Ross Millen (Kieran Ngwenya, 80 mins)

32y, 11m, 0d	David Mitchell	Jamie MacDonald
25y, 2m, 14d	Jack McMillan	Ross Millen
26y, 4m, 3d	Harry Milne	Liam Dick
21y, 0m, 16d	Connor McAvoy	Tom Lang
32y, 6m, 2d	Aaron Muirhead	Ryan Nolan
30y, 5m, 15d	Stuart Bannigan	Sam Stanton
30y, 1m, 9d	Ross Docherty	Brad Spencer
31y, 10m, 20d	Steven Lawless	Aidan Connolly
35y, 3m, 9d	Brian Graham	William Akio
25y, 3m, 22d	Kyle Turner	Connor McBride
24y, 6m, 6d	Scott Tiffoney	Dylan Easton

28y, 8m, 7d

19y, 11m, 27d	Mason McCready	Robbie Thomson
30y, 1m, 7d	Kevin Holt	Lewis Vaughan
28y, 10m, 22d	Darren Brownlie	Kieran Ngwenya future Jag
20y, 1m, 3d	Cole McKinnon	Scott McGill
31y, 5m, 2d	Lee Hodson	Greig Young
28y, 0m, 3d	Danny Mullen	Adam Masson
21y, 11m, 12d	Aidan Fitzpatrick
20y, 4m, 5d	James Lyon
17y, 6m, 4d	Zander MacKenzie

notes

Both sides generally in playing order.
Rovers filled only 6 of their 9 allocated bench slots.

TTA report

Rovers, unbeaten in 15, made little impression. Tuner found space for Tiffoney to head in at the far post (39). Graham knocked in a Milne cross (53) then the tenacity of Lawless to escape two defenders set up Tiffoney to beat the oncoming keeper (63). Mitchell had 2 fine saves - the 2nd a penalty (89). Comprehensive. Up to 3rd.

Media report

Craig Cairns, 04-Mar-2023, The Courier

After 15 attempts the opposition have finally got the better of Raith Rovers. That run has taken them far in cup competitions but a lack of wins in the Scottish Championship have left them struggling to climb the table. Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Firhill is a huge dent in their play-off aspirations. Rovers were missing Isma Goncalves and captain Scott Brown through injury, leaving manager Ian Murray light on bodies. A double from Scott Tiffoney and another from Brian Graham gave Kris Doolan the perfect start after he was named permanent Thistle manager earlier in the week.

Key moments: Both teams exchanged blows in the early stages though Thistle were the better across the first half overall. Connor McBride failed to pick out William Akio from a good opportunity in Rovers’ best chance of the opening 45 minutes but the home started to take control. They disrupted Riath playing out from the back with their high press and created a few opportunities in the process. Harry Milne flashed a dangerous ball across the goal midway through the half but it was through Tiffoney that they opened the scoring after Kyle Turner – who became more dangerous as it progressed – worked the space to send in an inswinger. Soon after the restart Jamie MacDonald was tipping over former Rover Graham’s effort from range. Soon after that Thistle doubled their through the big striker’s tap-in before Tiffoney finished off a counter-attack to for his second. Raith huffed and puffed in the second half but failed to test David Mitchell in goals until late in the game. Stanton forced a great save from close range before Mitchel saved a penalty and then got up straight away to save Liam Dick’s rebound attempt.

Manager under the microscope: Murray was dealt a double blow when Brown and Goncalves were ruled out ahead of the game. He kept the same formation, dropping Sam Stanton alongside Brad Spencer and bringing in Connor McBride. The away side were curtailed from passing out by Thistle’s high press and despite some nice passages of play in the first half they failed to take a grip of the game. Doolan’s men were by far the better side after half-time and the Rovers boss tried to make changes but was left with few options from the bench.

Reaction

Thistle manager Kris Doolan (speaking to the Courier):

The day was absolutely perfect. I don’t think I could have asked for anything more than that. Great performance, score great goals and obviously keep a clean sheet and other results going our way as well.

Rovers manager Ian Murray (speaking to The Courier):

I felt we got was we deserved out the game, which was nothing. I thought for 20 minutes we did alright. They got a foothold on us, which doesn’t happen to us very often. But overall we didn’t we didn’t create enough. We didn’t defend properly, we didn’t match midfield runners. We were sloppy with the ball our quality was poor. We didn’t get our full-backs high enough or get our midfielders on the ball. It was a very difficult pitch for us to play our game, as well. We didn’t look comfortable on it. But when you’re not comfortable, you just get nice and tight and go long if you need to. I think the problem in the first half was the ball was that the ball was coming back to us too quickly.

ROVERS RUN ENDED AT FIRHILL

● Kyle Turner's excellent assist is his 19th in competitive action in less than 2 seasons.

● Brian Graham is on the ascent in all goals charts, and today moves outright into our All Time Top 40 League scorers chart with 37 goals to his name.

● Kris Doolan's Jags retire at half-time with a one nil lead for the third time in his four games. They've yet to concede a first half goal.

● Harry Milne registers his 5th assist of the season to go with his 5 goals, giving him a fine double figures return in competitive action.

● Scott Tiffoney nets his second brace as a Jag, following on from his League double away to Airdrie in March 2021.

● Aidan Fitzpatrick hits a new personal best of 13 consecutive appearances in competitive action.

● Referee Greg Aitken awards what can only be described as an embarrassing penalty award to Raith Rovers, mis-reading a situation directly in front of him. In his last 13 Thistle games he's awarded six penalties against Thistle and only one in favour.

● David Mitchell faces a Raith Rovers penalty for the second time this season, the first being the final nail in a 3-0 League defeat at Stark's Park in October.

● David Mitchell is the first Thistle goalie to save a penalty which preserved a winning clean-sheet in the League since Kenny Arthur did so at Pittodrie in February 2003.

● Stuart Bannigan, Jagzone man of the match, has yet to be booked in his testimonial year!

● Raith Rovers 14 game unbeaten run (reportedly their best in 30 years) comes to an end at Firhill.

● Kris Doolan, confirmed as permanent new manager the day before, is the 4th Partick Thistle gaffer to remain unbeaten in his first 4 competitive matches. Only Murdo MacLeod (5) and Alan Archibald (10) have been on longer runs.

ongoing sequences:

● 37 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jamie Sneddon - 41 games, 28th Aug 2021 to 9th Jul 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

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