One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Thistle took to the pitch today determined to get their league season back on track after a disastrous day at Dens last Saturday. John Robertson returned from injury to deputise for the suspended Alan Archibald as the only change from last Saturday and Jimmy Gibson returned to bench replacing Adam Strachan.

With Hamilton flying high at the top of the league and Thistle trying to maintain their early season form, it promised to be an interesting afternoon of football. However, it was the away side who were to enjoy a comfortable afternoon, cruising to an easy 3-0 victory against an inept Thistle.

In the absence of Archibald, David Rowson took the captain’s armband, our third captain of the season so far. Thistle began the game unusually attacking the south end of the ground and within twenty five seconds Scott Chaplain found himself with a goalscoring opportunity. His shot went wide but it was a promising start.

However, it wasn’t long before Hamilton took a good grasp of the game and began to dominate. Possession was almost one way and, while there were no real scares in front of goal early on, it was clear that things were not looking good for Thistle. Hamilton, a big, strong, quick team stretched the Thistle defence on many occasions, almost earning a penalty after eleven minutes after Storey clearly appeared to handle the ball in the area.

After fifteen minutes, a fine move down the right, skinning the disappointing Storey, allowed Hamilton to tear through the Thistle defence. The ball eventually fell to ex-Jag Stuart Taylor whose shot was bravely blocked by Robertson. Hamilton were comfortable after the first quarter of an hour and Thistle’s play didn’t promise much change in the pattern of play. Alex Neil, in the Accies midfield seemed to controlling things with fine interchanging passes with the increasingly impressive youngster McArthy and Mark Gilhaney. Still, they had had no real goal scoring opportunities.

After eighteen minutes it was Thistle who carved out a genuine chance. McStay displayed excellent composure in midfield to put Chaplain through again but his shot went narrowly wide. Three minutes later Stevie Murray played Buchanan down the right who cleverly sped past Elebert in the Hamilton defence. Unfortunately, after finding himself in a superb position his cross was poor and the opportunity was missed.

Thistle appeared to be dragging themselves back into the battle and the Jags fans hoped that this would indicate a change in fortunes. Sadly, it didn’t and after 25 minutes, the wheels came off dramatically.

A harmless pass back to Gary Harkins went disastrously wrong when the defender somewhat arrogantly attempted to take the ball past perhaps the best striker in the league, Offiong. Like candy from a big, over confident baby, Offiong ran through to place the ball comfortably past Tuffey for the first goal. A soft, unnecessary goal finished clinically by a striker on form.

Barely three minutes later and a similar thing happened again. A show-boating Ryan McStay was pathetically dispossessed by young McCarthy in midfield and his run put Offiong away into the corner area only to be fouled by Storey. The subsequent free kick caused mayhem in a Thistle defence sadly reminiscent of last season and, after some flailing of clearances and blind headers, Offiong easily headed the ball over the line for his second. Hamilton, without having to try too hard, were coasting.

David Rowson, who toiled well this afternoon I thought, allowed his frustration to get the better of him and, after thirty three minutes was booked for pulling down McCarthy. Probably more a case of persistent fouling than the nature of the foul but he seemed to be very conscious of the booking for the rest of the game.

Hamilton seemed to be content to sit back and let Thistle huff and puff for the remainder of the half and after 34 minutes the Jags almost pulled one back. Clever dribbling from Buchanan led to his being fouled about 25 yards out and Stevie Murray’s superb free kick rattled off the cross bar. More excellent play from Murray sent Di Giacaomo free, but the on loan striker, who had a dreadful half, mucked up another opportunity.

The first half ended predictably enough with Thistle unable to learn form their mistakes. A fairly ordinary series of passes flummoxed the Jags defence and Offiong found himself clear and on a hat-trick. When he seemed destined to score, he sent his shot across goal and narrowly wide. A real escape for Thistle on the whistle but no-one could have argued against a 3-0 deficit if it had happened.

Manager Ian McCall hooked the dreadful Di Giacomo at half-time, replacing him with McKinlay and moving Murray to the right, and looked to start off the second half in a more positive mood. However, that mood was crushed after a mere twenty five seconds, when, in a slow-motion disaster movie bringing back memories of Clyde and Gretna last season, Accies walked through the motionless Thistle defence allowing, of all people, Stuart Taylor to make it 3-0. If there was any doubt as to the result of this game at half time, it had been ended there and then. Thistle were well and truly out of it now.

Throughout this game there was no question of Thistle getting lots of possession, they did. It just seemed that Hamilton were happy to let us play it around and shoved us off the ball seemingly at will. Chaplain, Buchanan and Harkins all had opportunities early in the second half but an inability to hit the target coupled with real evidence of tiredness in some players meant that we never really threatened today.

At the other end, Offiong, once again, skinned Harkins and almost added to his tally, instead shooting narrowly past. Jimmy Gibson replaced the disappointing McStay after 53 minutes but his introduction was never going to inspire creativity and opportunism.

Keegan took over from Murray after an hour – a move not appreciated by the crowd who saw the wee winger as our most productive and hard working player today - but it was clear that the player was tired and had run himself into the ground after a long cup tie against St. Johnstone.

The rest of the half ran its course somewhat predictably. Thistle made little headway against a big and efficient Hamilton team who clearly know what they’re about this season.

They will be hard to beat this year and are on top of the league on merit. If they can keep a hold of Richard Offiong, without doubt the best striker in the division in my opinion, and can keep relatively injury free, then they will not be far away at the end of the season.

As for Thistle, too many players disappointed today. Perhaps it was tiredness, perhaps our early season form was too much to expect from players playing above themselves. Either way, the facts remain that we have faced our two most difficult opponents in the last week and have fallen down at both hurdles.

This is no disaster. There should be no wringing of hands and predictions of doom. But perhaps it is a crash down to earth the like of which we didn’t experience until January last year. It was another bad day at the office from which we will no doubt bounce back against Berwick on Tuesday.

A lot of head scratching occurred when Scott Chaplain was announced as Man of the Match. Sure, he worked hard today, but achieved little throughout against a big and sturdy defence. I would have given it to Stevie Murray who, despite obvious fatigue, worked and harried his opposite number and ran himself into the ground.

Very few players achieved pass marks today. Storey looked awfully slow and Harkins was clearly uncomfortable on the left hand side of defence. Buchanan also worked his socks off today and I kind of agree with my hugely intelligent and articulate colleagues who sit behind me that Di Giacomo was atrocious and looked to have a very dubious attitude as well as playing poorly. There. I said it.

Those who shouted, ‘Are you watching this, McCall?’ were hopefully joking. This is not Campbell time again. We will experience days like this during the rebuilding process. Let us get right up for Berwick on Tuesday and break for the International games on an optimistic note.

Man of the match: Stevie Murray