One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE 2 PARTICK THISTLE 1
Match Report-Saturday 30th January 2010
Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness.
Attendance: 3,107
Saturday 30th January 2009

by Partick the Dog (with assistance from Wee Honk)

A controversial last minute spot kick fired home by Adam (remember the name) Rooney denied Thistle a deserved draw in an entertaining Battle of the Jags. The result was particularly hard on Jonny Tuffey who turned in a heroic performance, including saving an earlier penalty.  The effort and commitment displayed by an understrength Thistle side gave the supporters much more reason for encouragement than the previous two more abject defeats.

The first recorded visitor to Inverness was St Columba in 565. He dodged an attempted tackle by Ross Tokely and succeeded in converting the Pictish king Brude, though whether he would have had similar success with the current ICTish kingpin Terry Butcher is debatable. The journey north took the Thistle fans through a frozen waste dotted with snowclad mountains and past Scotland’s highest distillery at Tomatin. The last recorded wolf in Scotland reportedly met its end at Slochd Summit over which the A9 now runs and indeed there was no sign of Dougie Imrie in the Caley squad.

Signs pointing to Culloden brought back memories of past battles, Shaggy’s raging free kick, Marko’s late penalty and Archie’s wondergoal. A quick stroll under the Kessock Bridge (sadly no Kessock dancers in evidence), past two Thistle Directors out taking the air, led me to the Longman Bird Hide with descriptions of the cormorants, curlews and oystercatchers I might be privileged to witness.

Back to the Tulloch Teacake Stadium (or whatever it is now called), I found that Butcher had chosen to hide his bird and so Robert Eagle remained glued to his perch throughout the game. However, the absence of numerous regular players led to a rare early afternoon sighting of Avius Maximus (roughly translated as Big Bird) Chris Erskine who was in his favoured position on the left wing, with Mark Corcoran switching to the right. The unavailability of Paul Paton, Alan Archibald, Mark Cairney, Greg Shields and Simon Donnelly due to a combination of suspension, injury and illness also produced appearances for the almost forgotten Martyn Corrigan and Bryan Hodge.

Volunteers had swept snow to the edge of the pitch, though to venture beyond risked being lost in a snowdrift. New signing from Stirling Albion, Martin Grehan, joined fellow striker Kris Doolan and Paddy Boyle, Ryan Macbeth and Bryn Halliwell on the bench. There was an award ceremony to mark a 500th appearance by Ross Tokely (for whom the cliché good honest pro might have been invented) and he was given the privilege of sporting Number 9, the only number he had not previously worn. The unseasonably named David Somers blew his whistle and we were under way.

The first attack of the game revealed who were going to be the dramatis personae of this encounter. Tricky winger Jonny Hayes played in Adam Rooney who was left with only Jonny Tuffey to beat. The goalkeeper was on to the striker like a flash, spreading himself superbly to block the shot. Tuffey had to look lively again a few minutes later. The Thistle defence were conceding an alarming number of free headers in their own box and from one of these Richie Foran forced Jonny to palm wide.

Nevertheless, it was not all one way traffic. Corrigan and Corcoran on the right and Conroy and Erskine on the left were both combining well and there was good delivery into the box from crosses and corners. The Erskine Bridge was clearly inspired by running towards the Kessock Bridge and was arriving regularly at the far side of the box to meet balls which had made their way across. After a Conroy corner and a Maxwell flicked header, Big Bird’s shot was blocked.

As the Real Jags began to dominate the Fake Jags, Thistle took a deserved lead. Corcoran was finding a lot of joy cutting in from the right on to his left foot and by working out the angles, he realised that the same technique for hitting the byeline and delivering a cross from the left would work equally well for arriving at the centre of the pitch and firing in a shot. This was displayed to perfection in the 17th minute when his Andy Murray style passing shot from 25 yards gathered pace as it flew straight just inside the tramline to scud into the bottom corner of the net. He tried the same trick from even further out a few minutes later, but this time Esson was able to get down to make the save.

The Thistle fans were in fine voice with chants in support of Ian McCall being mixed with “We are Thistle, we are Thistle, you’re no, you’re no”. The dangerous Hayes tried to go past Corrigan in the box. The slightest touch sent him spinning around on the icy ground like an extra from Happy Feet. There was a slight intake of breath as Mr Somers ran up, but relief all round at the Thistle end as he administered a yellow card to the diver (another bird in evidence today).

Caley were becoming frustrated as frequent long balls skidded over the byeline. Thistle gradually took the ascendancy with Erskine having two more shots blocked. Hodge was showing up well and spraying passes from the quarterback position. The only negative note was that all the threat came from out wide and our much vaunted best strike force in the First Division could not get into the game. Stevie Lovell looked as if he had perhaps been out too late attending his wife’s Keltik Konnections Koncerts (spelled that way to avoid any allegations of Old Firm bias) while my notes constantly record “LB surrenders possession”. Perhaps we missed the industry of Cairney, as generally there was too big a gap between the midfield and the strikers.

However as the Jags fans began to sing, “We all dream of a team of Paddy Boyle”, Caley reminded us that while there may be only one Thistle, there were certainly two teams in this match. Their equalising goal was swift and clinical in its execution.  A through ball into the right hand side of the Thistle box for once evaded the otherwise excellent Martyn Corrigan and John Robertson. In virtually one movement Hayes brought the ball under control and despatched it unerringly in off the far post, the one place which Tuffey could not possibly reach.

Thistle came back and yet another corner by Ryan “Ten Four Good Buddy” Conroy arrived at the feet of Big Bird who smacked a shot off the crossbar. Another blocked Chris Erskine shot, this time from a Conroy free kick, took us to half time. No one seemed quite sure how to react when the news came through that Ross County were winning 1-0 at Dundee.
There was an early chance for the misfiring Thistle strike force in the second half. A pass from Lovell looked like it would be dealt with by a defender, but instead squirted through. Buchanan was back on his heels, whereas if he had been pressing forward he might have reached the ball before the keeper. Action quickly moved to the other end with Thistle rejectee Dani Sanchez forcing Tuffey to push his shot wide.

Thistle then enjoyed their best period of the match, rousing the crowd to their feet with a succession of corners and half chances. The best series of opportunities fell to Liam after yet another Conroy corner. He had three bites at the cherry. His first shot cannoned back off Esson in the Inverness goal. His second attempt was a low driven cross which the defence scrambled out, before finally he turned the ball back to Hodge whose dipping shot was turned over the bar. Shortly thereafter Liam had an even better chance but seemed to hit his shot into the turf from where it bounced on to the roof of the net.

Corcoran went to ground in the box in a similar manner to Hayes and was perhaps fortunate to be awarded a corner rather than a booking. Liam fired a cross along the six yard box but neither Lovell nor anyone else had made a run in anticipation of this.

Like Andy Murray in the tiebreak against Roger Federer, the failure to convert this period of pressure into points or goals on the board inevitably led to a momentum switch. It is at this point that the management team’s tactics could be questioned. The strikers were not on best form and the wide players Corcoran and Erskine were clearly tiring and going down a notch from their first half excellence. Even if one-eleventh of a team of Paddy Boyle was not really a serious option, why were all or at least some of strikers Martin Grehan and Kris Doolan and wide midfielder Ryan Macbeth not pressed into action, especially as they would all have been surprise packages for Inverness? They could not have been less effective than those on the park and at the very least they would have brought the famous “fresh legs” and perhaps some fresh imagination to the Thistle approach.

Midway through the second half, Hodge was dispossessed by Rooney and in trying to recover brought down the Inverness striker. It was a penalty out of nothing. Jonny made himself big and Rooney’s too straight attempt struck the goalkeeper and was lifted over the bar. Inverness were now streaming forward, but still vulnerable to a Thistle counter attack. From one of these Erskine was chopped by Munro (who was booked), leading to a free kick at the edge of the box. With such clean ball strikers as Conroy and Hodge available, it was disappointing that Thistle resorted to the tippy tappy routine and it was no surprise when Rowson’s effort was charged down.

More Caley corners resulted in some brilliant headed clearances by the defenders and some good catches by Tuffey. The Thistle goalie was working hard to earn his corn and twice had to get down low to thwart Rooney and Sanchez. Lovell played Buchanan through and he took the ball round Esson. However, the goalkeeper had forced him slightly too far wide and Liam perhaps then needed a cool head to assess his options. Sadly, he quickly snatched his shot into the side netting.

Rooney broke through again, but, confronted by the whites of Tuffey’s eyes, he shot meekly wide. Butcher threw on Odhiambo for Foran as Caley went for the winner.

In the last act of the drama, Rooney raced towards the Thistle box. There was a coming together with captain for the day Ian Maxwell which (admittedly from the stand at the opposite end of the ground) looked to be in the “D”. The ball moved sideways, indicating that Maxy had got something on it. Mr Somers turned from being unseasonable to unreasonable and brandished a red card at alleged last man Maxwell. Jonny Tuffey interrogated the linesman more effectively than the Chilcot Inquiry, but like Tony Blair he had managed to convince himself that he had made the right decision. Somewhere in the middle of what the late great commentator Bill Maclaren would have described charitably as “a wee bit of argy bargy”, the linesman allegedly swore in the hearing of eight Thistle players, though no doubt he was only doing so in self defence.

We all settled back for the freekick at the edge of the box and were amazed when the award turned out to be a penalty. Although Tuffey was leading Rooney by at least Five Love in their personal record of head to heads, there was a feeling that this run could not go on forever and it was regrettably no surprise when the perfectly struck penalty sped low into the left corner. There was no way back for the team (but unfortunately a very long way back both for the team and for the supporters).

Jonny collapsed to the ground at the end and had to be picked up by Ryan Esson for the traditional sporting handshake. He recovered his energy sufficiently for a further futile blast at the referee and linesmen on the way off. Dundee’s loss to Caley’s Highland cousins made this late defeat even more difficult to stomach. However, if the team continue to display the same spirit and energy as was apparent for the first three quarters of this game, Thistle may begin to climb the table again.

Teams:-

Thistle (ratings): Tuffey 9, Corrigan 7, Conroy 7, Hodge 6, Robertson 7, Maxwell 6, Corcoran 7, Rowson 6, Buchanan 5, Lovell 5, Erskine 7

Unused Subs: Halliwell, Boyle, Grehan, Doolan, Macbeth

Inverness: Esson, Proctor, Bulvitis, Munro, Djebi-Zadi, Cox, Sanchez, Foran (Odhiambo), Tokely, Rooney, Hayes

Unused Subs: Allison, Duncan, Golabek, Eagle

Referee- David Somers
Assistants- George Drummond, Roddy Cobb

Goals:
Inverness: Hayes 38, Rooney 89 (pen)
Thistle: Corcoran 17

Attendance- 3107