One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Partick Thistle 0-1 Ross County Irn Bru First Division

30 August 2008 Firhill Stadium 3.00

Reporter: Dave Donnelly

Scorer: Ross County Craig, 7.

Attendance: 2,945

Form is indeed a strange thing. In any sport, there remains the chance that any competitor, whether they be a world-beater or a comparative novice, can flip the seemingly obvious logical outcome into the sort of result no-one expects. While it’s true that the direction in which today’s three points would be headed was by no means assured, most fans of Partick Thistle would have expected a team which is playing well, scoring goals throughout the team, and looking towards the upper echelons of the league table to brush aside a newly-promoted Ross County outfit who until now seemed to labour, overawed, in the bargain basement of their new Division 1 surroundings.

It was precisely these dangerous flames of complacency that manager Ian McCall sought to extinguish in his pre-match comments, both on-line and in the match-day programme, and yet, as they trudged disconsolately down Firhill Road at full-time, the Firhill faithful will perhaps have felt that mere bravado was not their team’s sole undoing.

It can certainly be said that the performance of the Jags, most notably in the first half, was a mite toothless, and their highland opponents well-marshaled and tidy in their approach play, but the truth is that today’s result turned on the sending off of John Robertson for a perceived stamp on the ‘lively’ (i.e. plain irritating) Steven Craig.

Moreover, as the old cliché goes, goals win games; in the seventh minute effort which Thistle conceded there was more than just complacency on offer. A free kick was floated in from the County right deep into the Jags six-yard box. At such a proximity there was a valid argument for Johnny Tuffey to rise and collect, but even allowing for this lapse, the aforementioned Craig’s header home should at least have elicited a clearer challenge from a defending player. Complacency and incompetence are not the same thing. Unfortunately, in this episode, Thistle illustrated both.

The mood in the Jackie Husband Stand was none too bleak, however. The red and yellow had already created two positive passages of play in the brief moments prior to this early blow. On the fourth minute, Jags right-back Paul Paton launched a swinging deep cross into the visitors’ penalty box. Steven Lennon made tracks to connect, but just failed to make contact. Two minutes later, some neat interplay saw Donnelly’s backheel to Harkins forwarded to the onrushing Lennon. One-on-one with keeper Tony Bullock, the on-loan Rangers striker had his low shot blocked.

Overall, then, despite being a goal down, the Jags fans could have been forgiven for thinking that their side were in decent fettle and could look forward to an entertaining game. Instead the contest seemed to founder a tad, no doubt thanks in part to Ross County establishing a more conservative outlook in order to protect their slender lead. On the break, the visiting team were able to progress down the pitch fairly quickly, and their football, while hardly breathtaking, was effective and at least avoided the dreaded long ball game – although the style of their front men, Craig and Winters, no doubt contributed to this, much in the same way that Thistle’s forward line, lacking a recognisably dangerous target man throughout the squad, demands that the play go to feet.

Little of note occurred until the 20th minute, when a by now typically mazy run from Gary Harkins teased out some approval from the home fans. He was brought down before his foray could amount to anything, with the resultant free kick eventually breaking to Donnelly outside the box, his shot running wide. Although cast-iron chances were rare, his partnership with Lennon seemed to suggest a good understanding is in the offing.

Seven minutes later Gary Harkins missed what looked like a great chance to score from a header at the far post, his effort rising above the crossbar as he failed to get over it.

Shortly after Thistle were almost left to pay for their profligacy. Lacking a cutting edge despite maintaining the bulk of the possession, they found the play concentrated around their goal for once. Craig, who was, for better and for worse, at the heart of everything County did all day, took a cross ball from the right and planted a header goalwards. Leaping to his left, Tuffey pulled out the save of the day to push it onto the post. Craig seemed to pick up an injury in the move, and when play was re-started following treatment, Scott Morrison elected to launch the ball out of bounds for a goal kick, much to the chagrin of the Jags fans, in a move which typified the timewasting and oneupmanship that characterised much of County’s performance.

At this point it was becoming increasingly apparent that almost all of Thistle’s forward play was being conducted down the left, with little purchase. Despite often finding himself in acres of space, Paton was being omitted from the build-up to such an extent that you can only assume he had peed on the team’s sandwiches prior to kick-off. Tuffey’s long kicks seemed to be aimed at an apparition of Kenny Milne he had summoned down the opposite flank. The stand began to emit understandable mutterings of discontent.

Referee Brown gave the first of his odd decisions in the thirty-fourth minute when, from a corner won after Donnelly challenged a Paton cross, Tony Bullock moved across to collect a high ball only to find that Lennon was standing underneath it. On bundling him over, ‘free kick to County’ was the bizarre award.

Despite this, the home fans’ ire was directed at their own team’s lack of cutting edge thus far. This was to change in the forty-third minute when Robertson, no doubt feeling frustration of his own after he looked at serious risk of being robbed of the ball by Craig, got caught in a tangle of legs which could well have resulted in a decision in Thistle’s favour. Opinions range on what exactly occurred next, but from a perspective close to that of the near stand linesman’s, the defender appeared to then stamp on his opponent, who grabbed Robertson’s heel to prevent him from returning to the play. Brown was alerted to the incident by his assistant, who evidently saw it in the way described above, but the impression given was that the referee knew little or nothing about the matter. This culminated in his approaching the player, then casting a sheepish glance back at his assistant, who performed a pantomime version of a stamp accompanied by a slow “go on, you know it makes sense” nod of the head. The red card was duly shown.

To say that the players and their fans were incensed barely tells the full story. Team-mates crowded round the referee in the now-standard fashion, while chants of “Cheat! Cheat!” rang round the stadium. In the cold light of post-match analysis, the fairest assessment of the scene would be that, yes, it was a stamp, but not much of a stamp. By enforcing the letter of the laws of the game with disregard to the spirit of those same laws, it could be said that the officiating panel both risked spoiling the game as a contest, and neglecting to utilise the more common-sense option of a yellow card, with a talking-to.

The same assistant then further damaged the prospect of returning to a car with inflated tyres by awarding what was at best a very tight offside decision in County’s favour. Again Donnelly was the forward player, with Paton the provider despite his apparent invisibility to some of his other team-mates. This was the last action of the half, which saw the players and officials leave the field to more catcalls from the home crowd as captain Maxwell remonstrated further with the man in the middle.

Changes were inevitable for the second half. William Kinniburgh replaced Storey, while Scott Chaplain came on for Ryan McStay. This allowed Thistle a four-man rearguard to retain a positive aspect against the Dingwall men, who seemed, despite their man advantage, to sit back and play for the 1-0. The three in Thistle midfield and two forward players were therefore positionally unaltered.

Both teams were a little ponderous in the first twenty or so minutes of the second period, with a couple of Gary Harkins runs, one culminating in a low shot, the only moment of note.

Damon Gray appeared for the hard-working but ultimately unproductive Lennon in the sixtieth minute, and gradually his existence alongside the forward-thinking Donnelly and Harkins led to some increased chances for the Jags.

In the sixty-seventh minute Paton made a great last-ditch tackle to deny Winters a shot on goal, with the Ross County attacker injured in the process. He was replaced by Sean Higgins. On seventy minutes Thistle were lucky not to ship an own-goal as a shot hit the legs of captain Ian Maxwell. The ricochet thankfully spilled to the arms of a thankful Tuffey. These were the only two major attempts County had on goal in the second period.

Two minutes later another mazy Harkins run led to a low shot which was collected by Bullock. A series of minor, but markedly odd decisions from Colin Brown then served to remind the home support of his talents, and when Rowson was clearly cut down by substitute Gardyne, the blatant and necessary booking was nowhere to be seen. Rowser was next penalised for a perceived foul right in front of the Jags support to further fan the flames of revolt.

Things risked getting silly when it appeared that Richard Brittain was to escape from a reckless lunge at Donnelly with nary a booking, but the ref soon saw sense and took his name. The last tangible Thistle chance fell to Mark Twaddle in the eightieth minute. His leap and header from Donnelly’s free kick looped over much as Harkins earlier effort had done. A direct free-kick from Harkins three minutes from time was also blasted above the frame of the goal to complete a bad day at the office for the Jags.

To sum up, this phrase “bad day at the office” fits perfectly. Yes, there were some decisions from the referee and his cohorts that were at best sketchy, and at worst just plain bad, but Thistle were beaten today by no one other than themselves. Had they interlinked in the way we know they can, had they shown the spark and verve that has defined many of their early-season performances, then a few strange choices by the match officials would have been no barrier against a workmanlike but stodgy Ross County side.

The epitome of the day came as the clock dragged towards ninety minutes, while Thistle waited for the ball to be retrieved for a throw in near the away support. With goalkeeper Tuffey anxious to restart play, the young lad who had retrieved the ball hit the post with his attempted pass to Johnny. Sadly, on this occasion the post in question was the five-feet thick supporting post for the stadium floodlights, which entirely hindered said ball-boy’s view of the very person he was trying to reach. The rebounded ball drifted away towards the road as the crowd exhorted all concerned to try and get their act together. Today in a nutshell.

As for County, the likes of Boyd and Dowie, former Thistle players who could never have been said to have set the heather alight in their spells here, rarely looked flustered throughout the game. The obvious inference to be made here is that the Jags were outplayed by individuals who are known to be, at best, average performers. Something about Derek Adams’ team seems to mirror the Motherwell side of his heyday, when players like Scott Leitch and a young (and frequently petulant) James McFadden never failed to vex with displays of gamesmanship and referee-whinging. That said, they were tidy and played to their apparent game-plan well, and on this showing will be in the division next season.

Gary Harkins won the sponsor’s Man Of The Match, and, inasmuch as any player today deserved one, Jeebs would be a fair call. His runs were frequently the only thing for the suffering Jags support to cheer, and his work rate, if anything, showed that the spirit is at least willing. Donnelly was decent, more so in the second half, and the defence in general were, like County’s, never really pushed to break a sweat. Genuine attacking chances were at a premium, but whether this can be said to be the fault of a generally under-performing midfield or a quiet striking line-up is a point for debate. Several pointless high balls in their direction surely didn’t help. The even nature of the second half gave the lie to the man advantage held by the visitors, though. Surely, then, if the Jags had given the same level of performance with a full compliment of players the result could have been more amenable.

A strange one, then. Today, of course, didn’t signify the demise of the Jags as a force this year, but it certainly showed that any let-up will be punished in a historically tight league. We will beat better teams than Ross County this season, of that there can be little doubt, but whether our consistency can remain, whether that elusive concept of form can truly be tamed, remains to be seen.

Partick Thistle: Tuffey, Storey (Kinniburgh 46), John Robertson, Maxwell, Paton, Rowson, Harkins, McStay (Chaplain 46), Twaddle, Lennon (Gray 63), Donnelly.

Subs Not Used: Roberts, Hinchcliffe.

Sent Off: John Robertson (43).

Ross County: Bullock, McCulloch, Dowie, Boyd, Keddie, Lawson (Gardyne 66), Hart, Brittain, Morrison, Winters (Higgins 68), Craig (Daal 85).

Subs Not Used: Strachan, Donnelly.

Booked McCulloch 70, Brittain 76.

Referee: Colin Brown
Assistants: Jim Lyon & Richard Gough