 Media report |
Partick Thistle now find themselves level at the top of the William Hill Scottish Championship table after a 1-0 win over Dunfermline Athletic at the Wyre Stadium at Firhill on Tuesday night. Both sides came into the fixture in impeccable form, with Dunfermline’s 1-0 win over Morton at the weekend seeing them rise to within a point of the play-off places, whilst Thistle cut the gap on league leaders St Johnstone to just three points with a 2-1 home victory over the Saints on Saturday. There were two changes to the side from Saturday, with Luke McBeth replacing Lee Ashcroft, while Ben Stanway returned to the XI after picking up an injury against Queen’s Park a few weeks ago, as Alex Samuel moved to the bench in his place.
It was a chilly night at Firhill with the temperature low, but Thistle did their best to stoke the flames early with their customary fiery start to games this season. The first opportunity of the game fell to Ts’oanelo Lets’osa, who picked up a Logan Chalmers free kick on the edge of the box, but his shot didn’t have the power to trouble keeper Billy Terrell in the Dunfermline goal. Moments later, Tony Watt found himself with an opening after some lovely one-two play between him and Chalmers saw the ball cut back to Watt, but he failed to capture the ball under his spell sufficiently enough as his chance also went abegging. The Pars soon found their way into the game though, with Charlie Gilmour trying a long-range effort that flew high over the crossbar. Then, Andrew Tod’s curving strike from the edge of the box deflected out for a corner, before Tod got a second bite at the cherry from the resultant corner, flicking just wide of Thistle keeper Josh Clarke’s right-hand post. Thistle should have broken the deadlock on 17 minutes when some lovely passing play saw the ball worked to the unmarked Paddy Reading, who pinged a ball onto the head of Watt, who forced an excellent reflex save from Terrell in the process.
The Jags wouldn’t have to wait too long to open the scoring, though, taking the lead on 23 minutes. A gorgeous pass from Stanway sent Fitzpatrick racing up the park to get himself one-on-one with Terrell. He cut inside from the left and hit his shot low to the bottom right, with Terrell only able to get a glove to it on the way in. Four minutes later, Fitzpatrick had a golden opportunity to double the advantage, as he dashed through onto another 1v1. Like Watt earlier though, he struggled to keep the ball under control on the sloppy surface, toe-poking his effort wide. The chilly conditions and slippery pitch did little to encourage free flowing football, but Thistle looked on top for most of the first half, restricting Dunfermline to very little in attack, whilst also remaining dangerous going forward. Another nice piece of link-up play between Watt and Stanway saw Terrell forced into action, rushing to collect the ball before it developed further, while Oisin Smyth had a speculative effort moments before the break that flew wide of the mark, as the Jags went down the tunnel a goal to the good.
It was very much business as usual when the game restarted, with Mark Wilson’s men sticking to their game plan. They continued to suffocate the Pars’ forward line, whilst continuing to hunt for a second goal to put the game beyond doubt, but fell foul of multiple wafer-thin offside decisions early on. On the hour, a delivery from the left courtesy of Paddy Reading found its way to Watt on the edge of the area, only for his first time shot to rattle off the woodwork, as Thistle were denied yet again. Dunfermline’s only real chance of the half came courtesy of substitute Chris Kane on 66 minutes, but Clarke had enough about him to block the chance with ease. Up the other end of the park, a frantic few seconds of play saw the Pars back line throw themselves in front of efforts from both Lets’osa and Smyth as Neil Lennon’s men clung on in the face of the Jags bombardment.
As the game edged towards the final whistle, things became more foul-tempered with Dunfermline throwing in a host of rash tackles, including a shocker from behind on Alex Samuel from Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen which saw him go into the book. With 12 minutes, Thistle looked certain to seal the deal after Dunfermline made a complete mess of a free kick, gifting the ball to an onrushing Chalmers clean through on goal. Andrew Tod, however, was on hand to haul Chalmers down by his jersey, but strangely only earned a yellow card for the offence. Despite switching to two up front for the last twenty minutes, Thistle were unable to grab a second, but it was unnecessary, as a 1-0 win was sufficient enough for Thistle to draw level on points with St Johnstone at the top of the table.
 Reaction |
Partick Thistle manager Mark Wilson (speaking to Jagzone):
Really pleased, again a wee bit different to what we've seen this season, I thought our regular patterns of play you could clearly see in the first half, and Dunfermline made it hard for us in terms of trying to play through with that front three, but we managed to work it into some good areas, created some good openings at the start of the game. I thought that we controlled most of the first half and probably deserved our one goal lead. We tried to keep it ticking along in the second half, but we came under a wee bit more pressure, Dunfermline changed their shape and came at us a wee bit more direct, forced our hand to put two up top again, but the boys managed it well, I thought we defended our box well when we needed to and Tony hit the post which could have made it more comfortable. We got a great boost from the supporters going into the final ten, it's everybody shoulders to the wheel here.
Ben Stanway
Cammy Logan
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