One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Dundee v Partick Thistle
Irn-Bru Scottish First Division
Saturday 20th February 2010
Dens Park Dundee
Referee: J McKendrick
Attendance 5,216
Reporter- Tom Hogg

Once more the Jags faithful came away from Dens Park feeling that they had witnessed the team in red’n'yella put in the better performance than the home side, but leave empty handed, as despite a polished showing for much of the first half, a lack of punch in the final third proved their undoing.

A chilly day that put paid to the SPL match at McDairmid Park was no obstacle to the few hundred Thistle fans in the Bob Shankly stand who made the trip to Dundee, a number possibly boosted a little by those curious to see the debut of Jaggy (aka Jackie) McNamara. Thistle lined up in front of the Bobby Cox stand to pay tribute to the Dens legend who passed away on the morning of the match and whose death was marked by a minute’s applause, respectfully observed by both sets of fans.

Ian McCall rang the changes both in personnel and formation, with McNamara slotting in to the centre of midfield in front of a back three with Shields at sweeper. Paton claimed the right wing back position in preference to Corrigan with a Lovell - Buchanan partnership up front.

Thistle started brightly with early pressure on the left leading to a Conroy free kick which Archibald should have buried as he rose above a static Dundee defence, but he placed his header wide. Very shortly after, the Jags went behind to another early goal at Dens, this time from Eric Paton whose deflected shot from the corner of the box flew past Tuffey. Dundee almost added to their lead straight after when Hutchison looped the ball over after a McKenzie flick on from a corner.

The Jags midfield dug in though and the industrious Cairney and silky Hodge paired up well with McNamara going forward, with some neat interplay. A notable feature was Buchanan’s willingness to chase the ball into the corners and ask questions of Dundee’s creaky back four. At times he looked back to his pacy best, racing on to through balls and easily outpacing his opposite number. He was unlucky at least twice as useful balls were played just too far ahead or just too wide. His partner Lovell was having a harder time and the couple of times that he saw sight of goal, he seemed uncharacteristically hesitant, being tackled twice just as he was pulling the trigger.

Buchanan’s movement was causing problems and creating space for the midfield with Hodge and Paton both shooting wide from half chances. The Jags had the ball in the net just after the half hour as Douglas fumbled under Lovell’s challenge but unsurprisingly Mr McKendrick blew for an infringement even as Buchanan tapped in. Dundee began to compete better in midfield as the half wore on and the game evened out. Lovell though still had another half chance just before half time from a Paton through ball but his lob lacked composure and he fired over.

As the second half restarted the away stand was abuzz with the anticipation of another forty five minutes of midfield dominance and perhaps a bit more luck in front of goal, but the luck was at the other end as Hutchison slammed wide from a Griffiths low cross. While Thistle fans’ heartbeats returned to normal, Buchanan was replaced by Donnelly on 47 minutes, possibly due to injury.

Brian Kerr’s constant moaning seemed to spur Dundee to dig in and make the game more physical, with a string of niggly fouls breaking up the flow. Neither team could get to grips with the game and Thistle’s lack of pace up front failed to trouble Dundee, but there was still only one team looking to play football. Unfortunately as Dundee clawed their way towards the finish line, Thistle found themselves lumping the ball forward more often, with the quality of final ball fading as time wore on.

A brief flurry of half chances for both sides around the 75th minute brought some excitement including a good through ball from the debutant McNamara that found substitute Erskine lacking in the shot department, with Harkins hammering wide a speculative volley at the other end.

Whilst the distance did make it hard to see for certain, it looked like Thistle had a good shout for a penalty in the final minute as Ryan Conroy was felled as he took the ball past Eric Paton, but as the players waited for the whistle, the ref waved play on.

In the spirit of glass half full, this was a better performance than we have seen for some time, with the big Dens pitch suiting a more populated midfield and the space available for Hodge in particular to pick out some decent through balls. Thistle’s interest in the top of the league is fast receding, but if this is an indication of McCall’s planning for next season, it doesn’t look too far away. The return of Rowson next week will ask some questions and it will be interesting to see where and how he slots into the redesigned midfield.

Man of the match - Bryan Hodge despite being subbed late in the game, Hodge looked confident and assured for much of the first half and had one of his best games in a red and yellow shirt.