22nd Jul 2023 Partick Thistle 2 Falkirk 2 (League Cup Group B - game 3)

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matches:2023-24: ← 03game 0405 →

Match Information

36y, 7m, 11d			Kris Doolan		John McGlynn
Jamie Sneddon
David Mitchell
Brian Graham (1-1, 68 mins); James Lyon (2-2, 90+3 mins)					Ross MacIver (0-1, 14 mins); Alfredo Agyeman (1-2, 71 mins)
none (1-1, 68 mins); none (2-2, 90+3 mins)					none (0-1, 14 mins); Gary Oliver (1-2, 71 mins)
Anton Dowds; Aidan Fitzpatrick; Wasiri Williams					Ross MacIver; Brad Spencer; Stephen McGinn; Alfredo Agyeman
					Brad Spencer (@ 0-1, 67 mins)
Ben Stanway (Anton Dowds, 65 mins); Ben Williamson (James Lyon, 80 mins)					Sean Mackie (Leon McCann, 7 mins); Ross MacIver (Brad McKay, 72 mins); Stephen McGinn (Calvin Miller, 80 mins); Callumn Morrison (Ola Lawal, 80 mins)
25y, 10m, 16d			Jamie Sneddon		Sam Long
17y, 10m, 24d			Zander MacKenzie		Finn Yeats
26y, 8m, 23d			Harry Milne		Sean Mackie
23y, 3m, 21d			Wasiri Williams		Tom Lang
32y, 10m, 22d			Aaron Muirhead		Coll Donaldson
30y, 10m, 5d			Stuart Bannigan		Stephen McGinn
18y, 10m, 2d			Ben Stanway		Gary Oliver
32y, 3m, 10d			Steven Lawless		Brad Spencer
35y, 7m, 29d			Brian Graham		Ross MacIver former Jag
21y, 11m, 15d			Ben Williamson		Alfredo Agyeman
22y, 4m, 2d			Aidan Fitzpatrick		Callumn Morrison
27y, 1m, 6d
33y, 3m, 18d			David Mitchell		Owen Hayward
20y, 4m, 17d			Mason McCready		n-a
26y, 8m, 3d			Anton Dowds		Leon McCann
20y, 8m, 25d			James Lyon		Jordan Allan
17y, 11m, 23d			Ji Stevenson		Ola Lawal
16y, 8m, 28d			Sallu Turay		Brad McKay
17y, 11m, 16d			Jamie Taggart		Calvin Miller
					Scott Honeyman
					Rhys Walker
					Logan Sinclair

notes

Both sides generally in playing order. Thistle listed 2 sub goalkeepers and filled only 7 of their 9 allocated bench slots. The 'network' chooses to ignore the assist for Falkirk's second, a pass by #18, Gary Oliver.

Match Report

TTA report

A free-kick from inside the "D" by Graham after a red card (68) and Lyon's shot at a poorly cleared free-kick (90+3) redeemed an otherwise poor, sloppy performance. Lively Falkirk pounced on Sneddon's parried save (14) and a surging run and shot found the top corner via Sneddon's fingers (71). Falkirk's 7-6 pen bonus point win was deserved.

TTA man of the match

JAMES LYON only had 15 minutes, but it's justified on a day of below par performers. His box to box energy showed the way, and every touch was positive. Great control and finish for the goal, earning what could prove to be a valuable point, and also tucked away his shoot-out penalty with aplomb.

Media report

Ben Kearney, 22-Jul-2023, Falkirk Herald

Despite being down to ten men for the final 25 minutes of the match, the Bairns secured a 2-2 draw before going on to win the shoot-out 7-6, thanks to three penalty saves from Sam Long. John McGlynn’s men travelled to the Glasgow knowing that a victory would send them to the top of Group B, and they started very much on the front foot at Firhill. In the opening passage of the play, Sean Mackie saw an effort in the box go wide after neat play by Brad Spencer and Callum Morrison out wide. Former Thistle striker Ross MacIver then struck from close range to open the scoring on 14 minutes, with Falkirk’s impressive start rewarded. He was in the right place at the right time to poke home after Gary Oliver’s first effort was spilled by Jamie Sneddon in net. Spencer was the next to test the Thistle backline with a well-taken volley nearly making it two nil just after the half hour mark. Thistle then went close when Aidan Fitzpatrick’s excellent run saw him dart past three Falkirk bodies into the box. His cut-back found Brian Graham but Tom Lang was there to deny him the effort. Goalkeeper Long nearly handed the hosts an equaliser just before the break when his slack clearance was caught by Steven Lawless, who crossed in for Graham but couldn’t quite reach him.

In the second half, Thistle began to really take a complete foothold in the game, with the Falkirk playing deep within their own half. On 65 minutes, the Bairns were finally punished when Long was once again caught out with a slack pass at the back. His pass to Spencer put the midfielder on the wrong side of play, seeing him forced to wipe out the attacking Thistle man, with referee Steven Kirkland showing a red card for his last-man challenge just outside the area. And from that resulting free kick, the Bairns were punished by veteran hitman Graham. His sweetly struck effort flew into the top corner to level the tie. Despite being a man down, Falkirk then surged into life, with Alfredo Agyeman putting on a second-half show for the 526 travelling fans. Five minutes after the equaliser, he drove forward on the right, cut inside and beat his man before unleashing an effort in the near post to put the Bairns ahead. McGlynn’s side then had to deal with waves of pressure, and they managed to just about hold out until injury-time came. Substitute James Lyon was afforded an effort at goal during the second phase and he found the top corner with a cracking volley to send the match to a shoot-out. Long then redeemed himself, saving three spot-kicks as the Bairns won 7-6 to earn two points instead of one from their Firhill trip.

Reaction

Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan (speaking to Jagzone):

I felt as if we were a bit slack at times with the ball and that isn't like us, we usually look after it really well. Especially in the first half, our touches //and passing were slack and they get a goal, and you're always chasing it from thereon. When we got back into the game - when Brian scored a terrific free-kick - we were in the ascendancy, we changed the shape, went with a couple of strikers, we were going after them, but then we lose another poor goal. It's a great strike from the boy, but I still felt we should have done better to stop it. I said to them at half-time that I felt we lacked that bit of quality with the final pass, we were doing well to win the ball back, but then we just lacked that wee bit of quality that we normally have, but James Lyon was the one that popped up to show that he's got it.//

Gallery

© Donald Wilson. All rights reserved. View the hi-res original album directly on flickr

hover over any image to pause the slideshow…

Video Highlights

Option 1: extended highlights with commentary

(credit:Falkirk TV )

Option 2: pitchside cam

(credits: Partick Thistle / Ewan Waddell )

Option 3: James Lyon goal from the North Stand

• A Thistle Archive production

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Stats Watch

HARD TO WIN vs. McGLYNN

● At the time of writing, Thistle have more connections with Falkirk (148) than with any other club. Unfortunately, one of them (Ross MacIver) comes back to haunt us with the opening goal.

● Kris Doolan's Jags trail at half-time for the first time ever. You need to rewind to the 4th February 2023 to find the last such occurrence, when Thistle were behind by one goal to nil at home to Cove Rangers.

● In a second consecutive game at Firhill an opponent is sent-off.

● The prolific Brian Graham scores in a 4th consecutive game at Firhill.

● James Lyon scores his first competitive goal for Thistle to rescue a precious point in stoppage time.

● Isolating the query to a reasonable 10 competitive games minimum, John McGlynn remains in the all-time Top 20 opposition managers in terms of points-per-game. It's highly impressive when you consider he's achieved that with clubs such as Raith Rovers and Falkirk. Thistle have registered just 3 wins in 19 against McGlynn, resulting in a paltry ratio of 0.789 ppg.

ongoing sequences:

● 9 competitive home games without defeat; 4th Mar 2023 to date. (Longest run since: 13 games; 19th Jan 2013 to 27th Aug 2013. Club-record: 24 games; 5th May 2001 to 17th Aug 2002.)

● 31 consecutive competitive appearances for Aidan Fitzpatrick, 3rd Dec 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jack McMillan - 52 games, 9th Jul 2022 to 4th Jun 2023. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Stats Watch adheres to our stated definitions of League, League Max, Major Competitive, Competitive or All Games. Where there is no written qualification, you should presume that the Stat in question is compiled from the All Games criteria.

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