One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Jags boss Ian McCall had warned his players before the game that they wouldn’t get away with letting their minds wander to the midweek Scottish Cup quarter final, and to be fair to them, in the first half at least, they had their minds fully on beating Morton, but just lacked a cutting edge to go with their dominance.

There was just one change to the starting line-up with John Robertson fit to return in place of Harkins on the right of defence, and Scott Chaplain too was deemed fit to retain his starting place alongside McKeown and Rowson in midfield.

The home side have been on a rotten run of form and made a couple of changes to try and improve their fortunes with Finlayson and Stevenson coming in to replace McGuffie and Russell, but in the opening 45 minutes they were almost completely on the back foot and their defence looked nervy throughout.

In comparison, Thistle started the game well. Their passing was crisp and in the opening quarter of the game the Jags fans packed like sardines into the Stand were given plenty to shout about.

As early as the 1st minute the Jags had the home defence under pressure when they won a corner and from keeper Lee Robinson’s poor punched clearance, Stephen McKeown collected the ball on the edge of the area but sent his volley high over the bar.

Jenkins and Finlayson tried to hit Thistle on the break a couple of minutes later but the latter wasted their good approach play by hitting a weak shot that barely reached Tuffey on his goal line.

Thistle were soon back on the attack and a good bit of skill allowed Mark Roberts to get away from his man but his early shot was off target. Some quick passing in the midfield gave Roberts another glimpse of goal, but just as he was going to shoot a terrific last-ditch tackle by McGregor denied him.

Morton’s nervy looking defence wasn’t being helped by their keeper and he almost gifted Thistle a goal when he spilled Storey’s free kick, but Twaddle could only head the loose ball back into the keeper’s grateful arms.

A rare Morton attack called Tuffey into action for the first time midway through the half when came off his line to get a hand to Millar’s early cross. He only succeeded in knocking it back out into the heart of the box and was grateful no one in blue and white was on hand to snap up the loose ball.

Thistle should then of opened the scoring from a series of chances as they stepped up the pressure for the remainder of the first half. Damon Gray was first to threaten when Twaddle squared the ball to him inside the box and his shot on the turn was just wide of Robinson’s left hand post.

Seconds later the keeper had to make a terrific reaction save to deny Gray, although the Thistle player didn’t know much about it. Harding’s clearance cannoned off him on the edge of the six-yard box and Robinson made a great save to stop what would have been a comical goal.

Marc Twaddle was having an excellent first half roared on by the Jags support to his lef and he set up the next chance when he collected the ball from a throw in and beat two defenders before cutting the ball back to Roberts. From his pass inside McKeown’s low drive deflected into the path of Scott Chaplain at the back post, but he fluffed his shot and the ball trickled behind for a goal kick.

Robinson was called into action again in the 35th minute when he had to tip Storey’s corner over the bar, and then from another dangerous Twaddle cross he was relieved to see Greacen’s intercepting header fly just over his crossbar instead of into the back of his own net.

From the resultant corner Thistle had one final chance to break the deadlock when Chaplain challenged at the far post but he could only bundle the ball wide. And so as the half-time whistle blew we were left wondering whether Thistle would be made to pay for failing to score when on top.

That certainly looked as if it might be the case as Morton came out with much more fight in the second half. To start with it just made the game very scrappy with neither side in control, but as the game wore on Morton began to get more and more possession.

There had been little in the way of chances, early on Scott Chaplain’s driven cross was headed wide by Roberts but that was about it for either side, until midway through the half when the introduction of McGuffie and Russell started to make a difference for Morton.

Thistle’s change of Keegan replacing Roberts after just over an hour was also a factor in Morton’s resurgence. As although Keegan’s first touch was to play in Gray only for his shot to be deflected wide, things quickly went downhill for the veteran striker after that. He gave away foul after foul, failed to win a header or hold up the ball and as a result Morton were quickly winning back possession.

More than one Jags fan was heard to comment rather cruelly, “It’s like playing with a man down”. It wasn’t all down to Keegan of course, and it wasn’t just down to Thistle’s performance dropping either. Morton were chasing everything and with the home crowd sensing that maybe they could get something from the game, they began to put Thistle under pressure in the closing 20 minutes.

Firstly Jim McAlister hit a fine effort on the volley but just failed to keep it down enough to trouble Tuffey. The Jags keeper was called into action a few minutes later when Allan Jenkins went on a driving run that ended with him shooting firmly from 25-yards and Tuffey had to dive to his left to push his effort round the post.

With around ten minutes remaining and neither side looking like making the breakthrough, manager Ian McCall signalled that he was happy enough to try and hold out for a draw when McKinlay replaced Gray, leaving a rather strange front two of McKinlay and Keegan.

The Jags looked as if they were capable of holding out fairly comfortably, but not for the first time in this short Thistle career, William Kinniburgh hit the self-destruct button. With just two minutes of the game left a hopeful ball was played into the box and for some reason Kinniburgh chose to wrestle Morton sub Brian Wake to the ground, leaving the ref no choice but to point to the spot.

Ryan McGuffie was the man who stepped up to take the penalty and try and give Morton a valuable win. He hit it well, but much to the delight of the Jags support Jonny Tuffey made a superb save to block it before the defence scrambled the ball to safety.

It was a terrific stop by the Jags keeper, and he fully deserved the “one Jonny Tuffey” chants that followed it. Morton threw a couple of balls forward in the closing minutes but they looked a beaten team and it was the Jags fans who were celebrating at the final whistle.

Despite Thistle’s first half dominance, it was telling that Morton’s keeper was most severely tested by his own players, and not those in red and yellow. After the half-time break the players looked to have taken their foot off the gas, and in the end the Jags players will probably be happy enough to have taken a point and can now get on with dreaming of a cup shock at Ibrox.

Man of the match: Jonny Tuffey