One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

AIRDRIE UNITED 0 PARTICK THISTLE 1
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League First Division
Broomfield Stadium Airdrie
Saturday 31st January 2009 3.00pm
Referee:Scott MacDonald
Attendance- 1988

Reporters: Partick the Dog (with assistance from Wee Honk)

A superb volleyed goal from Liam Buchanan just before half-time was the difference between the teams, maintaining Thistle’s recently improved away record and halting the Airdrie revival.

Airdrie made its first appearance in the history books in AD577 as the venue for the battle of Arderyth between the forces of the Kings of Strathclyde and Kintyre. Airdrie seems to have been a battleground ever since and the Strathclyde police force are still much in evidence 1432 years later (the Kintyre lot are just mulling it over). Despite what Clyde fans may claim, this is the local derby most Thistle fans want to win, and there is always a special edge to the fixture with the erstwhile Bankies.

Scrawled on the outside of the New Broomfield Shyberry Excelsior Stadium (or whatever it is now called) were the words “Alan on top” which I found personally quite inspiring, but on top of whom or what was not specified by the graffiti artist (presumably Banksy).

The Gaelic translation for Airdrie is “Level High Pasture” and in general the pitch was in decent enough order, apart from the scruffy goalmouths, of which more later. Apparently Lianne, my former webmistress, was a welcome spectator at the game and she has obviously decreed to her successors that I am to be assigned to report on every away fixture in cold winter days in darkest Lanarkshire (discrimination against dogs?).

It was another bitter afternoon and taking notes with gloves on was not an option. At least my fellow supporters kept me warm by taking advantage of the welcome relaxed stewarding to stand for most of the game, thus forcing me on to my feet every time the ball was in certain quadrants. The uneven quality of this report can hopefully be excused by half of it being written standing up, half sitting down, and the rest of it (?) somewhere in between.

After scoring the winning penalty in a certain shoot out at Hampden a few days previously, Scott MacDonald was excused training duties by Celtic to be referee for the day. The linesmen were presumably members of the SAS or the Ku Klux Klan as their identities are not revealed either on the PTFC or the BBC websites. They were certainly anonymous throughout and did not restrain Scott (who should stick to being a striker) from making a couple of ridiculous decisions in awarding throw ins and goal kicks/corners.

Thistle were on usual lines, apart from an interesting experiment up front. Ian McCall (watching from the stand rather than the dug-out) discarded the third midfielder, leaving both McKeown and Chaplain on the bench. Simon Donnelly was a deep lying central striker with Kris Doolan and Liam Buchanan pushing up on the left and right flanks, trying to get into the box to capitalise on space which Simon created. Airdrie fielded a failed Thistle loanee (Di Giacomo), a failed Thistle trialist (Lynch) and a failed Thistle captain (Smyth).

Section B was deserted, and its former incumbents were sheltering behind a giant Union Jack (Union Giacomo?) in Section J as the game started at a frenzied pace. In the first minute, Doolan robbed an Airdrie defender and crossed for Buchanan whose attempt at a volley seemed to run down his leg from his knee to his foot, but still had sufficient power and accuracy to force Robertson to dive to parry the ball wide. From the resulting corner, Archie had a free header at the back post and would have been disappointed to send this too high. At the other end, Di Giacomo headed weakly wide from a Hazley cross.

The Section J repertoire alternated between “The Great Escape” and “Only the Lonely” with some high pitched chanting thrown in for good measure, prompting the response from the Thistle fans “Can you squeak a little louder over there?”. On the pitch Thistle were doing everything possible to inspire their own support and silence Airdrie’s by dominating the game. Doolan volleyed a Harkins cutback straight at Robertson and Rowson sadly failed to connect when Liam headed Twaddle’s cross down to him in the box.

The best opportunity in the opening exchanges fell to Liam, who was busy as always, though slightly out of touch. It was a feature of the game that the Airdrie defence was insecure in possession, with many hospital passes putting recipients under pressure. From one such incident in the 15th minute, Liam nicked the ball away from Hazley and arrowed into the box from his favoured right flank. Both shooting direct or squaring to Simon Donnelly were reasonable options, but sadly Liam screwed his shot, although at least he gave the corner flag a fright.

The game settled into a pattern for the next 20 minutes. Airdrie were making little contribution to the proceedings and even the simplest pass seemed to be going out of play. David Rowson returned to his imperious best and totally ran the show in midfield, which was some achievement, given Thistle’s lack of numbers in that department.

Glorious Gary Harkins was back to being a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. His long crossfield passing was wayward, but then again he would produce his usual magic moments of trickery to entice the Thistle fans to sing his special song (although for the sake of political correctness, I think the word “wife” should be replaced by “spouse or civil partner”). One cameo summed up his afternoon. Having beaten two men with a deceptive swivel, he completely miskicked and had to be bailed out by Rowson.

There were numerous pieces of skill and a generally encouraging standard of play from Thistle, but the only concrete opportunity came from a game of headers in the home penalty area. Twaddle was first up, but Doolan could not generate enough power to beat the goalie from close in. Airdrie then had a short period of ascendancy with McDonald sending a long shot just wide and Di Giacomo giving Tuffey his first real action, although the save was relatively straightforward.

As fans began to savour the thought of half-time pies, Thistle broke down the right. Donnelly linked and brought in Buchanan, whose cross cleared the waiting Doolan. Kris, showing the willingness to work which has helped him to settle so quickly into the team, pursued the ball out wide to the left and passed back to Twaddle. The Twadfather had one of his generally frustrating days of endeavour laced with casualness, but this time he hit an excellent driven cross. Liam was in front of goal and ahead of his marker Hazley. However, the cross was at an awkward height. Liam solved the problem with an airborne twofooted lunge which resulted in a strange but effective cushioned volley guiding the ball wide of the keeper into the left side of the net.

Cue chants of “Going Down” and “Worse than Albion Rovers”. Some time previously Paul Paton had apparently tried to catch an Airdrie player with a challenge, which although dangerous, did not connect. Play had flowed continually since then, so the referee took the opportunity after the goal to book Paul. McKenna shot wide for Airdrie, before the teams trooped off.

Thistle made a characteristically lethargic start to the second half, and Airdrie began to pin Thistle back for lengthy periods. Rowson could not sustain the energy levels of the first period, and with Harkins also sliding out of the game, Airdrie took over the centre of the park. Was this to be another depressing example of Thistle sitting back on a lead and forfeiting three points as a result?

In the 50th minute a low trundler from an Airdrie forward looked like an easy save, when it took a wicked bounce from a discarded bottle of Buckfast lying near the penalty box to give Tuffey a nasty surprise. Fortunately his body was behind the ball.

Cardle on the Airdrie right wing seemed to be a member of the famous Airdrie Weavers Society as he wove his way past Paton on several occasions. In the 53rd minute such a manoeuvre took him one on one against Tuffey. Jonny did well to spread himself and get some part of his anatomy on to the shot. It was still a relief to see the ball deflect round the post rather than into the net.

There was a huge stramash in the Thistle box five minutes later. Willie Kinniburgh and Paul Paton were caught up in the general mayhem, and as the ball bounced behind them and Airdrie forwards converged, Tuffey slide tackled the ball away. Although he did not reproduce the heroics of last week at Palmerston, this was another solid performance from the goalkeeper, and one poor kick out and one missed cross were the only minor blemishes on his record.

Just after the hour mark, McDonald was given time and space at the edge of the Thistle box, but placed his shot just wide of the target. Ian McCall needed to change the flow of the game and over the next quarter of an hour he did just that. In quick succession the tiring Harkins, Donnelly and Buchanan were replaced by McKeown, McKinlay and Chaplain, the latter two in particular injecting pace and urgency into Thistle’s play.

Archibald and Kinniburgh really stepped up to the mark and put in some excellent ball-winning challenges. With Storey sound as sweeper, the defence was relatively untroubled for the last 25 minutes. Some credit for this general change in the weather must be given to the Thistle fans who lifted the players at the lowest points of the game with some well-chosen selections from the Red and Yellow Army songbook.

Airdrie were obviously looking for vision and invention up front when they switched on their new signing from Montrose, John “Logie” Baird. However he was unable to channel the play or change the programme, so there were no highlights for the viewers.

Airdrie committed more men forward and inevitably gaps opened up in their rearguard to be exploited by the enthusiastic strong running of McKinlay. Undaunted by drilling one shot just wide, Kevin outpaced the defence and found himself right through on Robertson. Just when composure was required, Kevin flashed wildly at the ball and sent it into Row Z. It was fortunate that this miss did not come back to haunt him, but he still earned a rousing chorus of “Kev, Kev, SuperKev.”

Kevin’s next effort was deflected for a corner. Kev and Twads were able to keep the ball down at the Airdrie end before inevitably surrendering possession. However, Airdrie could not generate any significant pressure on the Thistle defence before Scott MacDonald brought the game to a close, exchanged a couple of high fives with fellow Australian Simon Storey and dashed off to change into his Celtic training gear.

Results elsewhere were largely favourable to Thistle so this unspectacular, but nonetheless enjoyable and satisfying, narrow victory puts us into second place. Meanwhile, although Airdrie may perhaps find enough in the tank to haul themselves out of the automatic relegation place, I suspect the best they can hope for is to be in the play-offs.

If in these globally financially restricted times, you are looking for a new summer destination, you could perhaps think of a fortnight in Lanarkshire, sampling “the holiday appeal of coal and steel”.
Teams:-

Thistle (ratings): Tuffey 7, Paton 7, Twaddle 6, Storey 7, Kinniburgh 8, Archibald 9, Doolan 7, Rowson 8, Buchanan 7 (Chaplain 6), Donnelly 6 (McKinlay 7), Harkins 6 (McKeown 6)  

Unused Subs: Hinchcliffe, Little

Airdrie United: Robertson, McLachlan, Hazley, McDonald, Donnelly, Smyth, McDougall, McKenna, Di Giacomo, Lynch, Cardle

Unused Subs: Nixon, Hollis

Referee- Scott MacDonald

Goal:
Partick Thistle: Buchanan (44)

Attendance- 1988