One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Today was all about excuses and surprises.

The first surprise for the Thistle support was the fact that the away stand was not opened since only a ‘wee team’ were visiting and so the Thistle support were housed in the end of the main stand. Anyone remember the before and after photos of the McDiarmid away stand last season, in particular the before one where the stand was nearly filled by travelling support? How times change.

The announcement of the teams brought a few more surprises – Buchanan on bench, Tuffey in for Hinchcliffe, Conner on bench and a lineup that suggested we would be playing 4-5-1. Quinn had thankfully returned from loan to Celtic but St Johnstone did bring in new loan signing McBreen.

As I grabbed my pre match coffee, I started hearing the excuses, and it would seem that between illness, suspension, injury and released players not yet being replaced, we barely had a squad which made the lineup make some more sense.

The game started and sure enough we were playing 4-5-1, however it was surprising to see Stevie Murray playing wide right with McKinlay in a similar role on left.

After only 3 minutes, a strong run down the left by Craig was brought to a temporary halt by a good tackle by Robertson but Craig recovered quickest to cross the ball which Tuffey came for but totally failed to deal with and he must have been grateful to Kinniburgh who cleared the goalbound effort off the line. Within a minute there was further shakiness from Tuffey who failed to hold a shot from MacDonald, but fortunately no-one was following up.

The system did not seem to be working very effectively. Roberts was coming deep and pulling wide and no-one was running beyond him, meaning Roberts was either isolated or more often we had no-one in an advanced position after Roberts came deep to fetch the ball. All of the central midfield three of McStay, Rowson and Storey seemed to be sitting back. Tuffey was guilty of launching balls quickly up towards Roberts who had no other Thistle player within 35 yards of him with inevitable consequences that St Johnstone won possession with ease.

There was a minute of complete chaos in the Thistle goal and defence after twenty, when a corner just could not be cleared or dealt with. A few minutes later, what turned out to be Thistle’s best move of the match occured. Twaddle, who was very poor for most of the game, hit a good ball to Roberts who flicked it out to McKinlay who intelligently took the ball into the box before squaring a good ball across the face of goal which Murray just failed to connect with as the goal gaped in front of him.

McKinlay again found himself in a good position a few minutes later after McCaffrey carelessly gave the ball straight to him but McKinlay’s lack of confidence meant he tried to square to Roberts when would have been better taking on the shot himself. Then St Johnstone had a good chance after McBreen got free in the box but Archibald made a magnificent challenge to deny him.

Remarkably Mr Dougal kept his card in his pocket after a very late challenge by MacDonald on Twaddle. Then in the last ten minutes of the half MacDonald had a good chance which he shot straight at Tuffey although Tuffey still spilled it, but managed to gather it at second attempt.

McCall made an early change with Harkins replacing Storey after 38 minutes. Another one of the surprises became apparent at half time as news filtered through that Di Giacomo had scored for Kilmarnock.

There were no changes at half time, although Murray and McKinlay swapped flanks and it seemed that Rowson and Harkins pushed on a bit more with McStay sitting.

The first chance of second half fell to the impressive Craig who shot just wide with Tuffey scrambling to cover his goal.

With 52 minutes gone, a shove on McKinlay (who was causing problems with his headed flick ons) gave Thistle a free kick from about 30 yards from which Harkins made Main make a good save. Thistle were causing more problems in the second half and after Rowson showed great determination to keep a lost cause ball in play, Murray’s cross caused panic in the St Johnstone box and Roberts eventually had a chance which was fired wide amid claims for a corner or a penalty – a goal kick was Mr Dougal’s decision.

Jackson replaced MacDonald after 57 minutes for St Johnstone. It had been surprising to see two of the divisions top scorers this season (Buchanan and Jackson) both on the benches today.

Just after the hour, Kinniburgh conceded a corner. It was never cleared properly and the ball was turned in by Stuart McCaffrey inside the 6 yard box. As we looked very unlike scoring, this was a blow to the Thistle support who were flat and grumpy for the remaining half hour (as well as being very cold!).

After 65 minutes McStay was booked for dissent after Dougal over-ruled his assistant who was about one yard away from incident and gave a throw in to Saints rather than Thistle. With twenty minutes to go, the ill Buchanan replaced McStay as Thistle changed to 4-4-2. Almost immediately, Thistle had a chance. A foul on Roberts gave Thistle a free kick on the left. Harkins delivered the free kick to the back post where it was met by Kinniburgh but the angle was tight and Main saved.

From the resulting corner, St Johnstone broke and with Thistle players guilty of ball watching and not tracking back with the enthusiasm of their attacking opponents, Milne slotted a good low shot past Tuffey. Game over. Tuffey’s frustration boiled over and he screamed at his team-mates for not showing enough spirit.

After 78 minutes, Twaddle was lucky not to concede a penalty but the Saints player stayed on his feet and managed to get his shot away despite Twaddle being all over him and holding his top, and with Tuffey beaten, Kinniburgh again cleared off the line.

Into the last ten minutes and Jimmy Gibson replaced the injured Kinniburgh and Saints replaced McBreen with Weatherston. Harkins moved into the Thistle back four.

What followed was a cameo of the worst kind by Jimmy Gibson, who admittedly did not get himself booked but his first act was to give the ball away and he did this repeatedly in the final minutes. I firmly believe that we could have done no worse bringing Hinchcliffe on to play in midfield for the closing minutes.

With five minutes left Moon really should have made it three nil but put a great chance wide. In the 90th minute Thistle won a free kick in their own half and the afternoon was summed up by Robertson passing it straight to a St Johnstone player standing 11 yards away.

There were mitigating circumstances today and I think most Thistle fans will understand that although the depth in the Perth mens squad compared to our own is frightening, however the chorus of boos from the away support will leave the team and management in little doubt that performances must improve.

Man of the match: David Rowson