One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Thistle slumped to a bitterly disappointing 1-0 defeat away at bottom club Stirling Albion today. It was a performance that fell short in every department, and if replicated will lead not only to a Scottish Cup exit on Tuesday, but a very uncomfortable rest of the season.

With limited options up front, manager Ian McCall paired Simon Donnelly up front with Paul Keegan, and Steven McKeown came into the centre of midfield to replace Gary Harkins, who dropped to the bench. With Alan Archibald also missing, Thistle began the game with Kinniburgh, Storey and Twaddle as their three centre-backs.

Thistle didn’t start especially well but neither did the home team, although they did score what turned out to be the winner after 13 minutes. It was the sort of goal we have seen Thistle concede countless times, yet very rarely seem to score ourselves. A Chris Aitken corner from the Albion left hand side was headed past Tuffey by on-loan Brian Allison, with the defender under hardly any pressure from the Jags defence.

Hopes this may have acted as a wake-up call were sadly misplaced, as Thistle continued to appear lethargic and lifeless. David Rowson was not as effective as usual in midfield, and we were all too often easily beaten in tackles by more committed opponents.

Thistle offered such little threat in the first half it is hard to remember many incidents worth reporting. Keegan was not making much impact on what was a makeshift Albion defence, his main contribution involving getting caught offside. Having said that, he did come closest to scoring for Thistle with a header in 19 minutes after a John Robertson cross, but it came back off the post.

It was clear that changes would need to be made, and McCall made two substitutions at the interval, replacing Keegan with Stevie Murray and McKeown with Ryan McStay. This meant a reversal to a back four, with Murray playing in wide right midfield.

The second half continued in a similar fashion to the first, despite these changes. Stirling increasingly began to sit very deep and were content to protect their one goal lead, and Thistle had very few ideas on how to break through despite having a lot of possession. Albion remained dangerous on the break, and David McKenna really should have done better than blast high over when Thistle were exposed at the back.

John Robertson did find himself in a promising position after possibly Thistle’s best (only?) move of the game. Some patient build-up, in contrast to the high balls that Donnelly and Scott Chaplain were getting nowhere with, led to Robertson rounding Hogarth in the area. However he was too wide to get a shot in, delayed, and the chance was lost.

The introduction of Gary Harkins for Chaplain at least brought some goal threat to the Jags team, with McCall surprisingly opting to play him up front. He had two good efforts as Thistle became increasingly desperate, the first a powerful shot that was too close to Myles Hogarth in the Stirling goal, and the second a floated left foot effort, which may well have been a cross, that Hogarth did well to tip over.

Stirling could have increased their advantage, although they had little interest in doing so. Nathan Taggart had a good low shot from the edge of the area that went just wide after 70 minutes, and with only a few minutes remaining Chris Aitken drew a fantastic save from Tuffey, after a wicked deflection had wrong-footed the Jags keeper.

Thistle had a few corners in the closing stages that must have worried the home fans, but nothing came of them. The boos that the blowing of Alan Freeland’s final whistle drew from the away support were more than justified, after a display lacking in imagination, commitment and urgency.

For Stirling, they will doubtless be delighted with back-to-back wins, and may now have some momentum to give those teams still within their range a few sleepless nights. This could include Thistle if we come up with too many more performances like this one, and a great improvement is needed if we want to enjoy at day out at either Ibrox or Easter Road next month.

Man of the match: Jonny Tuffey