 Media report |
Partick Thistle continued their formidable home form with a 1-0 win over Ayr United in the William Hill Championship clash at the WrightKerr Stadium at Firhill on Saturday. There were two changes from the starting XI for last week’s 0-0 draw with Queen’s Park. Tony Watt came in for Alex Samuel while Robbie Crawford started at the expense of Ts’oanelo Lets’osa. The bench was bolstered by the return of centre-back Lee Ashcroft who had been sidelined with injury since a Premier Sports Cup group stage game against Livingston back in July.
The opening five minutes saw Ayr on the front foot, but without threatening Liam McFarlane in the Jags goal. Thistle soon started to find their feet though, looking to make amends for their lack of goals against the Spiders last time out. Thistle’s first foray forward came on six minutes when Ben McPherson picked out Ben Stanway with a great pass through the Ayr defence. Unfortunately, the assistant’s flag went up for offside immediately, but it gave the Jags the confidence they needed going forward. Stanway once again was the receiver two minutes later, when Seb Drozd found him on the edge of the box. Despite Ben’s best efforts, the stodgy Ayr defence held firm, bottlenecking him in to prevent the chance of a shot. The Ayr backline seemed to be following Queen’s Park’s playbook, keeping things tight and making life difficult for the Jags attack. Oisin Smyth had a shot blocked on 10 minutes, before McPherson had an effort ushered out for a corner on 19 minutes. On the half hour, former Jag Luke McBeth came close to opening the scoring for the away side. A free kick from Ross Taylor found its way to a lurking McBeth at the back post, but the midfielder’s effort rattled off the post and back out, with the ball ending up in the goalkeeper’s arms. Sixty seconds later, it was Thistle’s turn to come close. A Paddy Reading cross in from the left found the head of Tony Watt in the box. The header had the better of Ayr ‘keeper Harry Stone, but did not hit the target, instead ricocheting off the crossbar and over. The Maryhill Men finally broke the deadlock on 37 minutes, with Drozd grabbing the goal in unusual circumstances. A corner from Fitzpatrick was swung into the box straight into the gloves of Stone. Somehow, he managed to spill the ball, falling at the feet of Drozd who made no mistake from point blank range, firing home for 1-0. Thistle were in the mood and could have made it 2-0 before the break. With five minutes left in the half, Tony Watt hit a low drive that had to be scrambled clear by the Ayr defence. They only got it as far as Robbie Crawford, who had a shot from range, but his chance whizzed narrowly over the bar as Thistle had to settle for a one goal lead going down the tunnel. Half-Time – Partick Thistle 1 Ayr United 0.
Ayr came out for the second half in search of a goal and piled on the pressure shortly after the restart. First, an Owen Stirton header had McFarlane at full stretch to parry the ball away. It fell to Olly Whyte with the goal at his mercy, but Ben Stanway was able to block his goal-bound attempt. A minute later, Stirton found his way into the Thistle box clear of his marker. With only McFarlane standing in his way of an equaliser, Stirton steered his shot across the face of goal, with the ball going out for a corner. Thistle weren’t off the hook quite yet though, with Ben Summers escaping his man and shooting from the edge of the area, but McFarlane dealt with the shot easily, having once again shown a good command of his goal over the five-minute stretch. After a period of pressure though, Thistle started to take the sting out of the game; Mark Wilson turning to his bench slightly later than usual, waiting until the 68th minute instead of his customary changes on the hour. Ben Dempsey and Ts’oanelo Lets’osa came on, with Ben Stanway and Robbie Crawford making way. Chances were become scarcer as the game became bittier. Lets’osa had a go on 78 minutes, after some lovely link-up saw the midfielder find himself him in space, but his low shot did little to perturb Stone. There was a hairy moment on 84 minutes when Jamie Murphy fed Dylan Watret through on the right flank. Watret drove a low cross towards substitute Josh Landers in a dangerous position. Landers tried to flick it on, but luckily for the fans behind the goal in the Lambie, it was blocked by Cale Loughrey. With four to go in regulation time, Fitzpatrick had the chance to put the icing on the cake, getting himself to a loose ball some 25 yards out. He hit his shot with good power, but Stone was able to dive to his right and capture the ball. Ayr cranked up the heat in stoppage time, as the clock continued to tick down, but the Jags stood tall to the pressure, seeing the game out for a vital win, much to the delight of those in attendance. Mark Wilson’s men have a rare Saturday off next week, with the Jags next back in action a week on Tuesday. They travel to Ochilview for a 7:45pm kick-off against the league leaders.
 Reaction |
Thistle manager Mark Wilson spoke to the press, transcribed via
'The Thistle' 
:
Football is a funny game, isn’t it? Last week I’m sitting here after 0-0 and it was ultimate domination. This week, quite different. A really hard-fought three points. I thought it was really competitive game, end to end. I thought both teams had some chances. I didn’t think one team really ran away with the overall performance. We got a real scrappy goal from a set-piece. I was pleased with that, actually. I know the goalkeeper drops it, but we worked on having bodies in there. So the guys were really switched on to the detail, and that’s the point. You have bodies in there in case it drops and he puts it in the net. You have to dig in a wee bit and I don’t mind that. I don’t mind winning 1-0. It just shows the contrast. You walk away last week with a point and this week with three. Two different performances, but I think we’re pretty pleased with our work today. They’ve got good players by the way, a good squad. I think they’ll take points off a lot of teams. I think they’ll be up there battling with us. So all in all, a good afternoon. A lot of the focus does get put on the guys at the top end of the pitch and the goalscorers and the wingers and all of that. But our backline - and it’s a mixture of individuals within that from last season to now - have been extraordinary at really caring about keeping things tight at the back. It’s something any good team has, so it’s something I wanted to instil in us. They get a wee bit of stick when they give the ball away because of the way we play, but they don’t half put their body on the line and they don’t half know how to defend their box. It’s a dying art these days, but it doesn’t go unnoticed by me or Alex [Rae].
Ayr United manager Gary Naysmith (speaking to Ayr United TV):
We should have got something from the game. The goal comes from a mistake and we spoke to them about having belief at half-time, which I thought we did. I thought we had three or four really good chances in that second half and played well. It is a performance for us to build on. That performance is far, far better than last week when we got a draw, so there’s things for us to work on and fine tune.
Robbie Crawford
Cammy Logan
