One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Clyde 1-1 Partick Thistle

13 September 2008

Reporter: Alan Murray

Scorers: Thistle: Chaplain Clyde Pat Clarke(pen)

Thistle fans were unusually confident going to the ground given that our record has been very poor over the last decade or so. The reason for this confidence was the remarkable turnaround in results last year. - With Thistle recording 3 wins out of 4.

McCall choose to reinstall John Robertson in the centre of defence after his unfortunate stray boot incident cost him a red card against Ross County. Johnny Tuffey also returned after international duty along with Steven Lennon.

Thistle started well and Gary Harkins early on tested Peter Cherrie with a couple of long range shots. Thistle failed to take any advantage of this pressure and Clyde started to find their way into the game. Maxwell was called on to make an intervention around the 22 min mark after nice work and cross by Ricky Waddle.

Clyde started to close down Thistle every time we touched the ball. With the two Clyde strikers putting the Thistle defence under pressure, John Roberson made the first of a few doggy pass backs to Tuffy – the expression on Johnnies face told it all!

Thistle took the lead in the 28^th minute when Scott Chaplain fired an excellent strike from outside the box. Cherrie in the Clyde goal appeared to be unsighted and could not stop yet another Chaplain goal against Clyde.

Steven Lennon had an excellent chance just before half time due to some excellent passing but was unable to take his chance.

In the second half Clyde started to take a grip of the game and Emslie of Clyde was pulling the strings in the midfield. His composure on the ball and ability to pick out his players was sadly lacking in the Thistle midfield.

Ian Maxwell managed to get his head to an excellent Paul Paton cross in the 54th minute however was unable to find any direction on the ball.

After the 58th minute McCall opted to swap Simon Donnelly for Mark Roberts.

Thistle had an excellent passing move after 66 minutes involving both Rowson and Lennon but Harkins sent his shot well over the bar.

Clyde then drew level through a disputed penalty. David McKay was through on goal – thistle fans saw Twaddle’s challenge as a shoulder charge the referee saw it as a barge. The resulting penalty saw the ball just managing to sneak under Tuffy’s body to give Clyde a deserved goal.

Thistle substitute Chis Turner saw himself in the book for an over zealous challenge in the centre circle. A deserved booking it was, but referee McDonald let go the Clyde tactics of chopping down thistle players when we found ourselves in promising positions.

Willie Kinniburgh was introduced in the 73rd minute for the injured Marc Twaddle. This did little to stop Clyde attacking the thistle goal and the jags were forced to defend several excellent Clyde shots on goal including a Scott Gemmill shot that was touched onto the bar by Johnny Tuffey at full stretch. Luckily, John Robertson reacted sharply to turn the rebound to safety.

In the 85^th minute a corner taken by the excellent Chris Turner very nearly resulted in a goal. Davie Rowson hit a thunderbolt shot which looked unstoppable only for Peter Cherrie to brilliantly turn in past his post. Yet again thistle fans are asking what does this guy have to do to score?

Clyde had the best chance of the game in injury time only for Tuffey to come to the rescue from Gemmel who had been through on goal. A goal that would have been well deserved given their superiority of play in the second half.

Thistle can count themselves lucky to come away with a point from this encounter. One major plus point is the performance of Chris Turner. He looks a class act and would be very surprised if he does not start next week against Morton.

Man of the match: Johnny Tuffey – yet again coming to save thistle from defeat.

Jags

Johnny Tuffey 9

Paul Paton 4

Marc Twaddle 6(Willie Kinniburgh)6

Simon Storey 7

John Robertson 6

Ian Maxwell 6

Scott Chaplain 6 (Chris Turner)6

David Rowson 6

Steven Lennon 6

Simon Donnelly 6(Mark Roberts)6

Gary Harkins 6

Players Not Used

Craig Hinchcliffe

Damon Gray

Clyde

Peter Cherrie

Alan Lowing

Michael Ohnesorge

Neil McGregor

Billy Gibson

Stuart Kettlewell (Ruari McLennan)

David McKay

Paul Emslie

Pat Clarke

Scott Gemmill

Ricky Waddell (Gary McSwegan)

Players Not Used

David Hutton

Alan Trouten

Chris Higgins

Referee: Douglas McDonald

Assistant Referees Craig Young & Andy Tait