 Media report |
Partick Thistle exited the Premier Sports Cup at the quarter final stage with a 4-0 defeat at the hands of city rivals Celtic at the Wyre Stadium at Firhill. Thistle came into the tie looking to end a thirty-year hoodoo against the Old Firm, last beating Celtic in May 1995, whilst booking a trip to Hampden for their first major semi final in 23 years. It was the first meeting between the two sides since January 2020, with the Hoops last prevailing at Firhill 2-1 in the Scottish Cup. There were two changes to the side that defeated Airdrieonians last Friday night. Loanees Josh Clarke and Ben McPherson were both ineligible to play against their parent club, with Lewis Budinauckas and Cammy Logan coming into the squad in their place.
After a rousing Tifo display in the John Lambie Stand Celtic had the majority of the ball early on, but Thistle remained defensively stout, despite the early pressure. The hosts had threatened on breakaways with one such move seeing John Scales yellow carded for hauling Tony Watt to the ground. Aidan Fitzpatrick threatened as well before Brendan Rodgers’ men made the breakthrough on 26 minutes. Hyunjun Yang cut in from a tight angle to hit home a cross from the left that deflected off the chest of Paddy Reading to give Celtic the lead in confusing circumstances. Yang opted not to celebrate, leaving the away supporters to think that he had merely hit the side netting however unfortunately the ball trickled into the Thistle net. Celtic then turned the screw immediately from the restart, going on the offensive in search of a second. They wouldn’t have to wait long, two minutes, to be precise. Sebastian Tounekti was denied by Budinauckas, eliciting a corner. From the short corner, Nygren delivers a cross to the near post which was headed over Budinauckas and into the goal via the underside of the bar by Scales to make it 2-0 Celtic on 26 minutes. Despite the mountain to climb, Thistle didn’t let their heads slip, fighting hard throughout the half. There were a few half chances in the minutes before half time, with Watt causing a scare following a defensive slip up.
Despite looking dangerous in the first half, Watt would be substituted at half time for Alex Samuel, fresh off his first goal for the Jags against Airdrie. Less than 120 seconds into the second half, Celtic increased their lead. New signing Tounekti burst forward, before cutting inside. A one-two with Kelechi Iheanacho bamboozled the Thistle back line for long enough to allow Tounekti to hit home for 3-0. Samuel looked lively when he came on, with the Jags getting more forward in the hope of restoring something of a game to proceedings. Samuel went close with a nicely-hit effort that sailed inches over the bar, while Ben Stanway got his head to a Chalmers cross. Celtic keeper Sinisalo got himself to the effort at the far post, turning it round the post for a corner. Kyle Turner, Oisin Smyth and Stevie Lawless would come off the bench to try and inject some life into the tie, but Celtic’s dominant position saw them happy to sit back and soak up any red and yellow pressure. Aidan Fitzpatrick found himself with a 1-on-1, but the angle was too tight for him to slot home, shooting wide. Celtic would cap off their win with a fourth goal on 80 minutes. A McBeth stumble saw Celtic dispossess him, setting up Luke McCowan to coolly fire home for 4-0.
Despite the result, the Thistle support did themselves proud. A sell out in both stands, the John Lambie Stand welcomed the side with that incredible tifo dedicated to our 1971 League Cup triumph. It may not have been the score we wanted, but it was a proud day to be a Jag. Partick Thistle return to league action on Saturday, when they make the trip to Fife to take on Dunfermline Athletic in the Scottish Championship.
 Reaction |
Partick Thistle manager Mark Wilson (speaking to the media c/o
'The Thistle' 
):
It's always tough for me. It doesn't matter the level of opposition when you lose like that. But of course the levels between us are that big, I don't think anybody really coming here would have expected anything other than Celtic to dominate the ball. It's all about how we could restrict it as much as possible and then offer a threat going the other way because we've been pretty good going the other way this season. And I just thought in the first half, we just played with a wee tinge of fear. We couldn't get really up and when I look at the goals, a couple of mistakes from us quick-fire and it's 2-0. The third goal, I wanted to press more aggressively so I'll take that on the chin. We did press more aggressively and they picked a couple of passes and the ball was in the net quickly - and that's the levels. But it’s a great learning curve for the players. I said to the guys after it, ‘Look , you're not coming up against that level of opposition in our division’. Our division is really competitive with good players but that's just a different level. So for the young ones who it's their first time playing in that environment, in front of a full house against international players who are used to playing the Champions League and Europa League, then of course they have to take everything they can from it and I hope it makes us better as a team.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers (speaking to the
The Herald ):
I think you can see that we're building our performance level and football and fluidity. The pitch was really slow and long. They tell me it's a bowling green here. Obviously, there's a good growth. So yeah, that was very long. But I thought the players they still tried to play and and some of our more kind of attacking play was very, very good. We talked about the variety in the game and and going into depth. I think it's something that we turn down sometimes. Especially against teams that are maybe not pressing onto us, but there's space there. So playing with the depth is really important. And but I thought the variety in our play between getting it wide, going central, going in behind was very, very good.
Cammy Logan
Kyle Turner
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