One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

A disappointing crowd of just 2071 turned up at Firhill after a three-week break without a home game, and ultimately they were left disappointed, as there was plenty of effort but little quality on show. Worryingly for Thistle, there was little to choose between the sides and in the end, a draw was probably the fair result.

There were a couple of changes made to the Jags line-up, Harkins and Roberts dropped to bench to be replaced by McKinlay and Strachan and the reshuffled side lined up in a 4-3-3 formation with Storey returning to right back to allow Robertson to take over from Harkins in the centre of defence; Gibson, McKinlay and Rowson in the middle of the park with the two wide men Murray and Strachan supporting Buchanan in attack.

Despite talk of a defensive 4-5-1 formation Stirling went with two up front, veteran Colin Cramb returning to the side to partner McKenna in attack, one of five changes to the side that lost to Clyde in their last game.

It was Thistle who were first to threaten after six minutes when Murray and Buchanan combined on the edge of the area and although the latter was crowded out, the ball broke to Murray on the left of the penalty box, but instead of trying to test the keeper early on, he delayed and eventually lost the chance to go for goal.

The visitors showed much more willingness to have a go at goal and showed Thistle how it should be done a few minutes later when McKenna stepped away from Robertson’s challenge and squared it, the ball was then pushed into the path of former Jag John Paul McBride and Hinchcliffe did well to push his drive away from goal.

Stirling were looking the more dangerous side but Thistle should have been handed the ideal opportunity to open the scoring in the 15th minute when Buchanan got in front of a defender in a tussle for a high ball and looked to be hauled to the ground with only the keeper to beat, but referee Chris Boyle made the first of his many contentious decisions by waving play on.

Things nearly got even worse within a minute when Stirling raced up the park and Bell slipped a pass into the path of McKenna right in front of goal, but with all the time in the world to pick his spot past the keeper, he shot weakly straight in to Hinchcliffe’s grateful arms.

They were made to pay for that miss when Thistle went right down the other end and after the ball had only been half-cleared, Strachan knocked it back into the danger area for Rowson and Buchanan did superbly to collect his pass before turning and firing it low into the bottom corner to put the Jags 1-0 in front.

To their credit, Stirling didn’t let their heads go down and Easton had a dig from 20-yards that stung the hands of Hinchcliffe, he parried it up in the air before collecting it at the second attempt. However, it was Hinchcliffe’s poor clearance that handed the visitors their next chance, McBride running onto his weak kick but then slid his shot just wide of the post.

Thistle had a couple of half chances with Buchanan and Strachan both heading wide, but the game seemed to turn in Stirling’s favour when they were awarded a soft penalty in the 37th minute. Archibald rose with Bell in the area and seemed to win the ball cleanly, but the ref signalled for a penalty indicating an elbow had been used.

Justice was done in Thistle’s eyes when Hinchcliffe produced an excellent save to deny Cramb from the spot, but Stirling had their tails up for the remainder of the half and although Hinchcliffe denied Cramb again with a fine save from his diving header, that only delayed the equaliser, as right on the stroke of half-time the resultant corner was swung into the Thistle box and Stevie Bell met it on the half volley to level the game.

McCall changed things round at half time, switching to 4-4-2 with Roberts replacing Strachan meaning McKinlay went to the left and Murray moved over to the right wing. Both sides had a couple of half chances from set pieces early on with Nugent heading straight at the keeper and Roberts sending his header narrowly over, however, in all honesty it wasn’t until Keegan replaced the ineffective McKinlay just after the hour mark that things really improved.

It was unfortunate for Buchanan that the changes meant he was shunted out to a right midfield role, but the sheer presence Keegan adds to the attack means he must be in line to start a game soon. Stranger things have happened; Strachan may get more than 45 –60 minutes in one of his rare starts under McCall!

Back to the actual game itself, and McBride finished off a good Stirling move in the 65th minute with an effort on goal, but Hinchcliffe was able to make a fairly comfortable save and it was Thistle who began to take control of the proceedings, their superior fitness telling in the closing 25 minutes of the game.

Buchanan was first to threaten when he collected a free kick at the back post and his volley back across the face of goal was flicked clear by the keeper, then a few minutes later Roberts was just inches from connecting with Twaddle’s driven cross.

With 15 minutes remaining Roberts will perhaps feel he should have done better after running onto Murray’s pass, with a defender in close attendance he was unable to square it to the unmarked Keegan which would surely have resulted in a goal, and instead his shot was blocked, spinning up off the defenders boot into the waiting arms of the keeper.

John Robertson then got up well to meet a corner, but couldn’t direct it on target and then Roberts showed good control to pull down a pass 22-yards from goal and was unlucky to see his shot clip the post on it’s way just wide.

Stirling’s top scorer David McKenna had a late chance to win it with just four minutes left on the clock, but as he’d done in the first half, he shot straight at Hinchcliffe from a good position inside the box.

If anyone was going to win the game at this stage it was Thistle and they had two late chances to do so, but agonisingly Alan Archibald saw his goal bound header from Murray’s free-kick cleared off the line, and then Christie made a fine save to deny Keegan right at the death.

It would have been hard luck on the visitors if Thistle had grabbed the late winner, as there wasn’t much to choose between the sides overall. And while McCall might be happy with the chances created in the second half, the bottom line for the Jags is that this, and other recent performances, show that we are clearly not going to be good enough to do anything other than avoid the drop this season. Progress looks to be slower than we had hoped…

Man of the match: Craig Hinchcliffe