7th Apr 2023 Partick Thistle 4 Queen's Park 0 (SPFL Championship - game 32)

matches:2022-23: ← 44game 4546 →

36y, 3m, 28d	Kris Doolan	Owen Coyle

Darren Brownlie
Lee Hodson

Kevin Holt (1-0, 50 mins); Kyle Turner (2-0, 67 mins); Danny Mullen (3-0, 86 mins); Kevin Holt (4-0, 90‎+‎2 mins)
Scott Tiffoney (1-0, 50 mins); Jack McMillan (2-0, 67 mins); Kevin Holt (3-0, 86 mins); none (4-0, 90‎+‎2 mins)
Ross Docherty

Brian Graham (Danny Mullen, 74 mins); Scott Tiffoney (Aidan Fitzpatrick, 80 mins); Kyle Turner (Cammy Smith, 84 mins)		Grant Savoury (Euan Henderson, 59 mins); Aaron Healy (Josh McPake, 59 mins); Malachi Boateng (Jake Davidson, 63 mins); Connor Shields (Scott Williamson, 84 mins)

33y, 0m, 3d	David Mitchell	Calum Ferrie
25y, 3m, 20d	Jack McMillan	Marcel Oakley
30y, 2m, 13d	Kevin Holt	Tommy Robson former Jag
28y, 11m, 28d	Darren Brownlie	Lee Kilday
32y, 7m, 8d	Aaron Muirhead	Stephen Eze
30y, 6m, 21d	Stuart Bannigan	Jack Thomson
30y, 2m, 15d	Ross Docherty	Malachi Boateng
31y, 11m, 26d	Steven Lawless	Dom Thomas
35y, 4m, 15d	Brian Graham	Connor Shields
25y, 4m, 28d	Kyle Turner	Grant Savoury
24y, 7m, 12d	Scott Tiffoney	Aaron Healy

29y, 10m, 1d

25y, 7m, 1d	Jamie Sneddon	Jacques Heraghty
26y, 4m, 19d	Anton Dowds	Louis Longridge
27y, 7m, 14d	Cammy Smith	Euan Henderson
20y, 2m, 9d	Cole McKinnon	Josh McPake
28y, 1m, 6d	Danny Mullen	Jake Davidson
22y, 0m, 18d	Aidan Fitzpatrick	Cameron Bruce
19y, 10m, 1d	Billy Owens	Scott Williamson
20y, 5m, 11d	James Lyon	Alex Bannon
17y, 8m, 9d	Ji Stevenson	Patrick Jarrett

notes

Both sides generally in playing order.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, 8th April, 2023. Brought forward as live game for BBC Scotland.

TTA report

The first half was energetic but fruitless. A flick-on by Graham was cut back by Tiffony for Holt to put away (50). A tremendous “team goal“ with 5 passes was finished off by Turner close in (67). Mullen turned and shot home a loose ball (86) and as QP dithered Holt bundled in for 4-0 (90+2). second half best performance of the season by a mile.

Media report

Lewis Anderson, 07-Apr-2023, Glasgow World

Partick Thistle blew the Scottish Championship title race wide open as they swept aside toiling leaders Queen’s Park 4-0 in the first Glasgow derby of the weekend at Firhill on Friday night. The Jags moved above third-placed Ayr United in the table and within three points off top spot after a Kevin Holt brace and further goals from Kyle Turner and substitute Danny Mullen sealed a comprehensive win and gave their revived promotion hopes a significant boost. It was a third successive league defeat for the faltering Spiders who rarely looked like staging a comeback and are in real danger of surrendering their place at the summit with four games remaining.

Queen’s Park had long seemed certain to finish above Thistle in the table after winning all three previous meeting earlier in the campaign for the first time since 1935 but they struggled to pose much of an attacking threat in front of the BBC Scotland’s cameras. The hosts shaded what was a largely forgettable opening 45 minutes, with Stevie Lawless looping a cross into the box for the unmarked Scott Tiffoney but the winger’s effort flew wide of the post after 38 minutes.

Visiting defender Marcel Oakley then made a crucial late block to deny Tiffoney from breaking the deadlock moments after the restart before Thistle carved open the Spiders defence just a few minutes later to open the scoring. Brian Graham played a neat cushioned pass in behind a hesitant Queen’s backline for Tiffoney to latch onto. He then proceeded to cut the back back across the six-yard box for the on-rushing Kevin Holt who calmly rifled the ball past keeper Callum Ferrie into the net at the back-post. The visitors offside appeals were waved away by referee Willie Collum and television replays suggested that Oakley had played Tiffoney on. Thistle were playing some eye-catching football and Tiffoney was proving a constant menace for the Spiders to contend with. Ferrie kept his side in the game with an important save to deny Kyle Turner when he tipped the midfielder’s shot over the crossbar but Partick swiftly doubled their advantage following another well-worked move. Lawless exchanged a clever one-two with Graham before the striker expertly lifted the ball over to Jack McMillan. The full-back opted against pulling the trigger and instead squared it to Turner who forced the ball into the net under pressure from two defenders. Substitute Danny Mullen then added a killer third goal with just four minutes remaining when he unleashed a powerful first-time drive on the turn beyond the outstretched Ferrie and there was still time for Holt to bundle home his second and Thistle’s fourth to really rub salt into the wounds of Queen’s Park.

Reaction

Jags boss, Kris Doolan, who has lost just once in nine outings since his appointment as manager, reckons his side now have all the momentum heading into the business end of the season, as he told Glasgow World:

It was a real statement of what we are capable of. We scored five goals last week against Cove, four tonight and a couple of clean sheets there too. I am proud of the players because it is not easy to deal with pressure. Their whole mindset is that the title race is not over. I was lucky enough to play in a team here who made the top-six in the Premier League so I know what this club is capable of. You see them at the end and they are still throwing themselves at things. Their attitude is first-class. Second-half we knew we were going to go after them and it worked perfectly but it is down to the players sticking to the plan and doing the work on the pitch. I have won the championship here and I know the pressure. We have tried to give everyone as much confidence as we can and as much information and analysis as we can. There has been a real team effort. Everybody is looking for momentum and we’ve got it. We have already got massive amounts of it and it can take you a long way. That belief is 100% in that dressing room. They believe in one another and that is the key.

Speaking to the Glasgow Times, deflated Spiders boss Owen Coyle is concerned that their title charge is beginning to run out of steam and has called on his players to “stand up and be counted”:

Given what we have done to get to where we are there is no doubt it is difficult to take. You can go a goal behind in any game but I am annoyed at the manner of the reaction to it. Our reaction wasn’t good enough and the goals got progressively worse from a defensive point of view, without taking anything away from Thistle. It was nowhere near good enough. We allowed Thistle to get their tails up. You have to do the basics right and we didn’t. For us, we haven’t been at the heights but what I saw in the second-half just is not good enough. We’re hurting tonight. There was one or two who never got on and if I were them I would be banging my door down demanding to know why when you look at that. It is a range of emotions. You cannot offer that up in the second-half and think you are going to win games. We need to stand up and be counted and show a bit of steel now.

SECOND HALF BONANZA

● After 9 games, Kris Doolan's Jags have yet to concede a first half goal, and it's 10-in-a-row for the club overall.

● For the second time in his Thistle career Kevin Holt scores in back-to-back League games. Thistle have won all 8 League games in which the big defender has scored.

● Jack McMillan becomes just the third Jag (after Higginbotham and Turner) to register double figures in competitive assists in any of the last 10 seasons.

● Danny Mullen nets his 5th goal as a Jag and Thistle keep up their 100% win rate when he does so.

● With his 92nd minute strike, Kevin Holt scores Thistle's 200th competitive home goal versus Queen's Park.

● These sides have now went 43 years without a draw against each other, an unlikely 21-game run.

● It's 5 clean-sheets in the last 6 games for player-of-the-month David Mitchell who has yet to concede a goal at Firhill this year.

● Thistle score 4 second half goals at Firhill for the first time since 21st Februrary 2012 when they came from behind to win 4-2 at home to Ayr United in the League.

● Thistle are now joint-top scorers in this season's championship, alongside Queen's Park on 58 goals.

● Thistle had kept only 2 League clean-sheets in their first 23 games, but have registered 7 in just 9 games under Kris Doolan.

● Thistle had played Cove Rangers and Queen's Park 6 times in the League this season without a win, but have slaughtered both those clubs 9-0 on aggregate in just 7 days under Kris Doolan.

● For the first time since 2012-13, Thistle have beaten every team in their League.

ongoing sequences:

● 42 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: James Penrice - 51 games, 7th Sep 2019 to 10th Apr 2021. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

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