 Media report |
Partick Thistle will have to wait a little longer to find out if they have progressed to the last 16 of the Premier Sports Cup following a 2-2 draw against Stenhousemuir at Firhill, which saw the away side side claim a bonus point on penalties. The Jags came into the game with their fate in their own hands. A win would guarantee them top spot in the group in advance of the final matchday, whilst their sizeable goal difference meant that even a draw would surely be enough to secure a berth in the next round as one of the highest-placed second placed sides. Stenhousemuir travelled to Firhill knowing that a win away from home would see them leapfrog Thistle in the group table, after wins over Brechin and Forfar in their first two games. As was the case against Forfar and Livingston, there were six changes to the starting XI from Saturday’s trip to West Lothian. Highly rated goalkeeper Liam McFarlane was between the sticks for his debut Jags appearance, having signed on loan from Hearts last week, replacing Lewis Budinauckas. Dan O’Reilly regained the captain’s armband at the expense of Lee Ashcroft, who was absent from the match day squad. Also absent was Cammy Logan, who came off injured against Livi. Matthew Falconer, who covered the rest of the game for him on Saturday, took up the position again, making only his third start in red and yellow. Aidan Fitzpatrick and Gary Mackay-Steven moved to the bench, with Seb Drozd and Ts’oanelo Lets’osa taking their place as Euan Henderson moved from the 10 to his more natural position on the flanks. As has been the case throughout the League Cup group stages, the strikers switched places, with Alex Samuel starting this time as Tony Watt was rotated out.
It was a high tempo start, with Stenhousemuir having the first chance seconds into the game. Stenny launched a low cross from the right into the path of experienced frontman Dale Carrick whose sliding effort went wide of the near post. It took only six minutes for the scoring to be opened, with Stenhousemuir being the ones to go in front after Paddy Reading was judged to have blocked an effort from Stenny captain Ross Meechan with his hand. Referee Daniel Graves pointed to the spot, with Euan O’Reilly duly stepping up to slot home into the bottom right corner. In the subsequent minutes, Stenhousemuir took advantage of Thistle’s high line, launching long balls over the top of the Jags’ makeshift defence repeatedly. The stand-in right-back Falconer, however, was giving an impressive account of himself going forward. With Thistle’s first chance of the game, the youngster floated a lovely through ball for Lets’osa to go through one-on-one, but Stenny’s ‘keeper Darren Jamieson was able to mop up the danger. When the Jags went behind, Falconer continued to shine. On 15 minutes, he hit another great ball in for Crawford, who was unable to stretch himself enough to get anything on it. Two minutes later, Falconer had a chance of his own on the edge of the box, but the Youth Academy graduate was unable to keep his balance, blasting his shot over the bar. Sixty seconds later, Falconer pulled out his best move so far, bamboozling the Stenny back line with an audacious back heel that provoked an excited reaction from the Firhill faithful, as it found Seb Drozd in space to shoot. The winger’s effort, though, was a bit lightweight, with Jamieson having no issues in stopping it.
On 22 minutes, Drozd was barged down in the Stenhousemuir box by Kinlay Bilham, but the linesman kept his flag down as Thistle’s pleas for what looked like a stonewall penalty went unheard. Amidst fury from the stands, Stenny raced up the other end of the park; Hodgkiss threading the ball through for Callum Penman on the right-hand side. Penman shot across goal and kissed an effort off the inside of the left-hand post for 2-0. Ten minutes later, Thistle halved the deficit. Euan Henderson swung a corner in from the left-hand side straight onto the head of Oisin Smyth. Stenny ‘keeper Jamieson did his best to try and save the bullet header, but the ball slipped through his fingers and over the line. Buoyed by the goal, Thistle went forward in search of a leveller. Henderson continued his good group stage form, with him and Smyth combining for a great piece of attacking play. A silky dribble down the right saw Henderson cut back for Smyth, but the midfielder’s powerful drive was well saved by Jamieson down to his left. Thistle continued to press the issue, with another chance soon after. Lets’osa didn’t get all of the initial effort, before Falconer took a pop from the edge of the box, but it was deflected away from danger. Alex Samuel was unlucky not to square the game five minutes before half-time, when he received a pass from Smyth and hit his shot on the turn. The Welshman’s attempt was scrambled off the line by the Stenny defence, and the hosts remained 2-1 behind as they made their way down the tunnel at the break. Half-Time – Partick Thistle 1 Stenhousemuir 2
With work to do, Wilson put trust in his starting XI to turn things round, making no changes at the break. The second half did not start with the same frenetic, breathless pace as the first, with both sides taking time to get out the blocks after the restart. It took until the 52nd minute for Thistle to produce their first chance of the half, when Reading found Samuel with an exquisite cross into the box. The Welshman, however, could not get enough on his header to beat Jamieson in the visitors’ goal. Cometh the hour, cometh three men, as Wilson saw fit to replace his entire front trio on the 60-minute mark. Watt, Fitzpatrick and Mackay-Steven were subbed on for Samuel, Henderson and Drozd in an attempt to prize open the Warriors’ defence. Stenhousemuir retreated into their own half, inviting pressure, as Thistle started to dictate the pace. Jamieson was having an exemplary game in the opposition goal, making no less than four stops within the space of two minutes. First, he was able to deny Fitzpatrick after the wideman worked his way into the box from a short corner. Mackay-Steven was denied twice in quick succession. First, Falconer set him up with a lovely touch, forcing Jamieson to parry the ex-Celtic man’s effort out. Moments later Mackay-Steven was played through again, this time by Fitzpatrick, but with the angle against him, Jamieson was able to smother his shot which bounced out for a corner. Cale Loughrey got on the end of that corner but again Jamieson was on hand to thwart the Maryhill Men.
Robbie Crawford was next to ask questions of the steadfast Stenny ‘stopper, firing a bullet header goalwards which Jamieson tipped over the top. The impressive Falconer then got another chance to shoot when Oisin Smyth fed him the ball on the inside-right channel. Thistle’s number 25 lined up his effort but became just the latest Jag to be denied by the luminous yellow wall guarding the Stenhousemuir goal as it was turned around the post. With the pressure beginning to take tell Thistle finally broke through on 81 minutes, with Watt finding an equaliser. A Gary Mack-Steven cross caused chaos in the six-yard box as Dan O’Reilly did his best to force the ball over the line. Ultimately it fell to Watt who instinctively lifted it high into the net from close range to restore parity. Thistle’s tails were up now, and they burst forward in search of a winner that would guarantee progression. Let’sosa jinked his way down the right-hand side, with precious little time remaining, and cut the ball back for Crawford. The midfielder couldn’t control his first time try as the ball flew comfortably over the top. In stoppage time, Reading put Jamieson to work one last time with a tight angled effort, before Falconer fired a ball across the face of goal to no takers for the last chance of the game, as both sides had to settle for a draw. Full-Time – Partick Thistle 2 Stenhousemuir 2
There was still the small matter, though, of a bonus point to be decided via a penalty shootout. Stenhousemuir drew first blood through Gregor Buchanan, with Smyth then drawing Thistle level. Meechan successfully converted Stenny’s second, before Aidan Fitzpatrick saw his effort saved by Jamieson. Watt and Mackay-Steven managed to score Thistle’s next two penalties, but Stenhousemuir were able to hit home all five of their spot kicks to ensure they grabbed what could be a vital extra point. The result sees Thistle left waiting until the weekend to find out whether or not they will progress to the next round. With Livingston playing Stenhousemuir on Saturday, that result will determine where Thistle finish in the group. To win the group, Thistle require a low scoring draw in that decider. 3-3 or higher would see Thistle drop to second, but only if Livi get the bonus point. In the battle for second place progression, Thistle’s points and goal difference hauls mean we are guaranteed to place higher than second place in Groups B, C, G and H, needing only one other result to go our way in order to stamp our ticket to the last 16 of the League Cup. The Jags now have a free weekend from competitive action, travelling to Holm Park on Sunday to face Clydebank in Nicky Little’s Testimonial, before starting the 26/27 Championship campaign with a trip to Cappielow to face Greenock Morton.
 Reaction |
Thistle manager Mark Wilson spoke to
'The Thistle' 
:
If I’m honest, I thought for 20 minutes it looked like we were a bunch that hadn’t played together - at all. Saying that, Matty [Falconer], who’s a midfielder, playing at right-back – that’s only his second-ever experience of that, the first being Livi [on Saturday]. And then you’ve got a disrupted centre-back pairing [Dan O’Reilly and Cale Loughrey], you’ve got a new goalkeeper [Liam McFarlane]. So, we were a wee bit slack, but the goals we lose are nuts. It reminded me a wee bit of the Morton game here last season where we lost two goals in transition. We were two down, we won it 3-2. But once we then started to get to grips with the ball a wee bit, we created chances at the tail end of the first half. Certainly, the second half of the first half was better. Their goalkeeper pulls off a lot of good saves. We had to tidy up their attacking transition at half-time, and just kind of re-tune the guys to their ideas on how to stop that. And I thought in the second half we were really bright, really good. Again, the goalkeeper made several good stops and there were plenty of corners, plenty of action, but we just couldn’t find the winner.
Alex Samuel
Gary Mackay-Steven
