29th Apr 2023 Partick Thistle 2 Arbroath 0 (SPFL Championship - game 35)

matches:2022-23: ← 47game 4849 →

36y, 4m, 18d	Kris Doolan	Dick Campbell former PT manager

Scott Tiffoney
Aidan Fitzpatrick

Kyle Turner (1-0, 40‎ mins); Kyle Turner (2-0, 61 mins)‎
Steven Lawless (1-0, 40‎ mins); Scott Tiffoney (2-0, 61 mins)‎
Ross Docherty		Dale Hilson; Bobby Linn

Brian Graham (Anton Dowds, 70 mins); Kyle Turner (Cole McKinnon, 79 mins); Scott Tiffoney (Aidan Fitzpatrick, 79 mins); Steven Lawless (Danny Mullen, 87 mins)		Dale Hilson (Toyosi Olusanya, 68 mins); Yasin Ben El-Mhanni (Bobby Linn, 68 mins); João Baldé (Scott Allan, 68 mins); Steven Hetherington (Dylan Tait, 74 mins); Scott Bitsindou (Paul Komolafe, 83 mins)

33y, 0m, 25d	David Mitchell	Derek Gaston
25y, 4m, 11d	Jack McMillan	Scott Stewart
30y, 3m, 4d	Kevin Holt	Lewis Banks
29y, 0m, 19d	Darren Brownlie	Ricky Little former Jag
32y, 7m, 30d	Aaron Muirhead	Thomas O'Brien
30y, 7m, 12d	Stuart Bannigan	Scott Bitsindou
30y, 3m, 6d	Ross Docherty	João Baldé
32y, 0m, 17d	Steven Lawless	Yasin Ben El-Mhanni
35y, 5m, 6d	Brian Graham	Dale Hilson
25y, 5m, 19d	Kyle Turner	Michael McKenna
24y, 8m, 3d	Scott Tiffoney	Steven Hetherington

29y, 10m, 23d

25y, 7m, 23d	Jamie Sneddon	Cammy Gill
26y, 5m, 10d	Anton Dowds	David Gold
27y, 8m, 5d	Cammy Smith	Bobby Linn
20y, 3m, 0d	Cole McKinnon	Paul Komolafe
31y, 6m, 27d	Lee Hodson	Dylan Tait
28y, 1m, 28d	Danny Mullen	Toyosi Olusanya
22y, 1m, 9d	Aidan Fitzpatrick	Scott Allan
20y, 6m, 2d	James Lyon
17y, 8m, 1d	Zander MacKenzie

notes

Both sides generally in playing order.
Arbroath filled only 7 of their 9 allocated bench slots.

TTA report

Lowly Arbroath might have scored but for Mitchell. They had as much of the play, lots of endeavour but no cutting edge. Turner's glancing header (40) from Lawless' cross (after 15 passes) put them ahead and a quick kick out by Mitchell to Tiffoney set up Turner (61) for 2-0. It would have been more but for their keeper.

Media report

Alan Temple, 30-Apr-2023, The Courier

Arbroath’s survival bid will go down to the wire. It’s never dull with the Lichties. Kyle Turner’s clinical brace for Partick Thistle secured a comfortable 2-0 victory for Kris Doolan’s promotion hopefuls. Now without a win in five, it also keeps Arbroath looking over their shoulders. They could yet finish ninth in the Championship and be plunged into a fraught relegation playoff. Or they could end the campaign on a high and secure a fifth successive season in the second tier; a truly laudable achievement. It all comes down to next Friday night. Arbroath don’t NEED to beat Hamilton on the final day. A 0-0 draw would be sufficient to retain their Championship status — unless Cove Rangers find a way to beat Morton by 18 clear goals at the Balmoral Stadium, that is. An unlikely prospect. Nevertheless, matters would be made much less nervy if the Lichties could address their achilles heel; a failure to ripple the net.

Dale Hilson and Tam O’Brien missed half-decent opportunities against Thistle on Saturday but ultimately the visitors were fairly toothless. Michael McKenna picked up clever pockets of space in the midfield, Hilson worked tirelessly and Yasin Ben El-Mhanni made a couple of incisive passes in the first period before fading entirely as the game wore on. However, it appeared to be a team picked for industry rather than inspiration and, as such, Arbroath have found the net just once in their last five matches. They are the lowest scorers in the division with 29. Whether a change of personnel, strategy or — most challenging of all for a coach — an injection of confidence is required, Arbroath need an attacking spark for the visit of Hamilton. A rueful Dick Campbell acknowledged that impotence in the final third has been “the same all season”. He must hope it does not prove to be the defining factor of it.

Arbroath have every reason to be sick of the sight of Partick Thistle. Not only do they find it maddeningly difficult to get a result against the Jags, the are unable to even ripple the net. The Lichties are winless in seven against Thistle and have failed to score in their last SIX meetings. Roughly 624 minutes of football between the sides have passed since Colin Hamilton beat Jamie Sneddon on March 1, 2022. That game finished 1-1. One must go back further — to December 11, 2021 — for Arbroath’s last victory against Thistle, with Anton Dowds, who was on the bench FOR the Jags on Saturday, and Liam Henderson sealing the 2-0 triumph. While Arbroath’s focus remains on the battle at the bottom, they may just want Partick to win promotion; purely so their paths won’t cross next season.

While there were few pass marks during a forgettable trip west, Derek Gaston did not deserve to be on the losing side. The experienced goalkeeper was fantastic between the sticks and, frankly, was the difference between a defeat and a drubbing. He made terrific stops to deny Turner, Darren Brownlie and Brian Graham as Thistle peppered the Arbroath goal-mouth. All the more impressive, given he was battling illness ahead of the game. Gaston’s quality and consistency should come as no surprise following four years between the sticks at Gayfield, but Arbroath remain lucky to have him — and one more big display may be all that is required to seal safety.

Reaction

Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan (speaking to Jagzone):

I thought a well deserved victory in terms of we dominated most of the game. I felt as if we dealt with most of their threats and we imposed ourselves on the game. I'm delighted for Kyle Turner - he scores two fantastic goals and shows he's not just about assists, he's a fanatastic finisher. Two great goals and another clean sheet for us. The whole team defended well, I think you see the work rate of everyone from front to back. I thought Darren Brownlie and Aero marshalled Arbroath's forwards very well, and they also organized the guys in front - Doc and Banzo - we boxed off their strikers and made it really hard for Arbroath to counter us through the middle of the pitch. What we've done now is put ourselves in the best position coming into that last game, we know we can get second, and that's got to be our focus, we've got to look after our result, then what will be will be.

BLANKETY-BLANK CAMPBELL MAKES HISTORY

● It's 3 direct goal involvements in 3 consecutive games for the sublime Steven Lawless.

● It's 5 direct goal involvements in his last 4 games for Scott Tiffoney. Livewire.

● Kyle Turner nets his first-ever brace as a Jag.

● Kris Doolan's Jags have yet to concede in the opening 45 of any match at Firhill and remain unbeaten in the Maryhill heartlands.

● Thistle blank out Arbroath for the 4th time in the League this season. It's the first complete League goal-blanking since Alan Archibald's Jags did so versus Dundee in 2016-17.

● Incredibly, Thistle register their sixth consecutive clean-sheet versus Arbroath. It's only the second time in history Thistle have done so against any one club, the record run (10) being set versus Montrose in 2021.

● Dick Campbell becomes the first manager in history to go six games without a goal versus Partick Thistle.

● Partick Thistle go into the final League game of the season as top scorers in the Championship (63) but, mathematically, could still finish anywhere from 2nd to 6th. Cinch.

ongoing sequences:

● 5 competitive games without defeat, 1st Apr 2023 to date. (Longest run since: 6 games, 18th Feb 2023 to 18th Mar 2023. Joint club-record: 16 games, 15th Nov 1975 to 21st Feb 1976 & 30th Sep 2000 to 13th Jan 2001.)

● 5 competitive home games without defeat; 4th Mar 2023 to date. (Longest run since: 6 games; 26th Nov 2022 to 21st Jan 2023. Club-record: 24 games; 5th May 2001 to 17th Aug 2002.)

● 45 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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