Sunday, 14 May 2006
| Written by Lianne | |
| Sunday, 14 May 2006 | |
| Thistle battled back from conceding an early goal to beat Peterhead 2-1 at Balmoor, with the winner coming in injury time. That took the game into extra-time, but there was no further scoring and in the lottery of penalties, Thistle edged past the Blue Toon to clinch promotion.The Thistle side showed just one change from the team defeated at Firhill in the first leg, Hodge being replaced by Snowdon with the former Livi youngster playing in a midfield role to allow Smyth to return to the centre of defence. Peterhead opted to make a couple of changes, strong substitute appearances in the game at Firhill earning starts for Hegarty and Bavidge with Youngson and Linn dropping to the bench.
The match opened at a frantic pace in front of a packed capacity crowd. Billy Gibson’s overhead kick following a corner was the first effort on goal inside the first minute, and with barely five minutes on the clock the first goal was scored. Thistle were caught out with a quick break down their left and Bavidge raced clear before firing the ball confidently past Kenny Arthur. A quick response was just what Thistle needed, and just two minutes later it was exactly what they got. Jimmy Gibson’s chip into the box was nodded on by Snowdon, it fell to Roberts and the Jags top scorer turned and knocked it low past Mathers to level the scores. The frantic opening continued with McConalogue’s lob hitting the side netting, Strachan’s near post shot being well saved by the keeper and at the other end, Arthur making a good save low down to his right to deny Wood. The pace of the game eventually settled down a little, but Thistle continued to create chances, and like the first half at Firhill on Wednesday, looked the stronger side. Snowdon and McConalogue both just failed to hit the target with efforts before Mathers had to scramble another McConalogue shot round the post. But Peterhead eventually responded and stepped up the pace just before half-time when Sharp beat Snowdon and Murray before finding Bavidge inside the area, and only excellent work by McCulloch stopped Peterhead’s goalscorer from finding a teammate with his ball across the box. Bavidge threatened again a few seconds later when he ran onto a ball over the top but had to stretch to reach it and Arthur was able to make the save. Worryingly for the noisy Jags support, it seemed like the 1st leg all over again when Peterhead started the second half strongly, while Thistle struggled to get hold of the ball. And apart from a half chance for McConalogue, most of the early second half action was at the wrong end of the park from a Thistle perspective. Kenny Arthur had to make a good save at his near post to deny Wood in the 54th minute, and then Hegarty’s sizzling drive only just cleared the crossbar. Thistle then had a real let off in the 72nd minute when Bavidge squared the ball for his strike partner Martin Wood, but with the goal at his mercy he hit the post and Nicol blasted the rebound over the bar. Two minutes later and the Jags had another lucky escape when Woods’ defence-splitting pass sent Bavidge clear, he beat Arthur with his low shot but for the second time in quick succession. The ball came back of the post. Thistle were struggling to match Peterhead at this point in the game and Campbell gambled by bringing on Nicholas and Ritchie and switching to 3-4-3. A brilliant tackle by Jimmy Gibson stopped Sharp from testing Kenny Arthur again after he’d waltzed through the defence, but the changes did begin to make a difference and in the closing ten minutes the Jags set about finding the second goal required to take the game to extra time. Billy Gibson went close with a drive from the edge of the area and then Mark Roberts went down in the box looking for a penalty after he felt he was fouled, but the ref waved away his claims. Grant Murray was next to threaten when he ran onto Ritchie’s knock-down but blasted over the bar and Thistle’s hopes looked to be slipping away. But with the game edging into injury time a free-kick was won 25-yards from goal. With McCulloch off the park, Billy Gibson stepped up to take the kick and his low drive deflected off the foot of a defender and past the keeper to make it 2-1 Thistle and take the game to extra time. Thistle’s full-time status finally seemed to make the difference and they dominated the extra 30 minutes. Ritchie blasted over from close range before Mathers was forced to save from another Gibson free kick. Then Kilgannon’s whipped free-kick was met by Ritchie at the back post and the keeper made a terrific block with his legs to stop him from extending Thistle’s lead. In the second period of extra time Kilgannon tugged a shot wide, and Mathers saved at the feet of Nicholas, before a rare Peterhead attack had to be dealt with when Linn and fellow sub Youngson almost combined to create a gilt-edged chance, but Arthur managed to block before Youngson could shoot. Nicholas had the final chance to win the game when Ritchie and Strachan combined to set him up, but he failed to hit the target and so the game went to penalties. Mark Roberts, Sean Kilgannon and Billy Gibson all converted theirs, while Kenny Arthur saved from Dougie Cameron and Keith Gibson clipped the outside of the post to leave Will Snowdon with the chance to step up and secure the win. He failed to repeat his Scottish Cup success though, Mathers saving his penalty before the Peterhead keeper stepped up to convert the home side’s second penalty of the shoot-out. That left Paul Ritchie with the chance to seal the win, and he made no mistake with his effort, and the Jags had triumphed 4-2. After holding the upper hand against Thistle this season, Peterhead will have been bitterly disappointed to fall at the final hurdle, but the Jags did manage to do it when it mattered most - and in the end it was fitting that the two teams who finished level, 13 points behind second placed Morton, required the lottery of penalties to decide who would win promotion. Man of the match:
STATS Attendance: 3,700
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