Match report - Partick Thistle v Ross County
Partick Thistle 0 Ross County 0
Saturday 14 August 2009 3.00pm Firhill
Reporter Alan Murray
Referee: Crawford Allan
Attendance: 2,391
McCall chose to stick with his 4-3-3 formation but asked Mark Corcoran to swap wings to the right to accommodate Erskine on the left.
Thistle started well and Donnelly had a shot off target in the 9th minute.
Thistle were having nearly all the possession but were unable to turn the pressure into chances on goal.
Ian Maxwell did have a shot on goal from a nicely worked free kick but his shot was deflected over the bar.
After the 34th minute Ross County had a man sent off. Gary Miller went in hard and the reaction afterwards saw him sent off.
Half time and Jim Hamilton replaced the out of sorts Paul Cairney.
After the restart Thistle again had all the possession - Chris Erskine showed good pace down the left and wiped in a cracking cross which Jim Hamilton tried but was unable to get his head on.
There was controversy in the 55th minute when Stephen McKeown was sent off after a clash with Kettlewell. McKeown appeared to try to slap Kettlewell but Kettlewell was also guilty of raising his arms and you have got to wonder how he managed to escape within even a booking. Never the less McCall will be unhappy about the lack of discipline shown from McKeown.
Simon Donnelly was possibly starting to show some effects of his illness and after losing possession of the ball he was substituted for Bryan Hodge.
Thistle continued to press but were unable to create any real goal scoring opportunities and with 19 minutes remaining McCall opted to swap Mark Corcoran for Kris Doolan.
Jim Hamilton tried to get onto a Tuffey kick but was unable to get any decent direction on power on his shot to overly trouble McGovern in the Ross County goal.
Paul Paton had the last chance of the game but his strike went over the bar after nice work by Kris Doolan who won a corner for the jags.
All in all a very poor performance and most worrying was the fact that we lacked any cutting edge up front. Passing is a major fault in the team and McCall may need to reshuffle his formation and personnel to fix this. All in all a very frustrating afternoon.
Man of the match - Chris Erskine on the basis of the potential he has.