One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Thistle faced their toughest pre-season test tonight at Firhill against Leicester City and there were no real suprises as the Championship side ran out 2-0 winners courtesy of two second half goals.New signings Harkins and Rowson started again while the trialist French midfielder was given a final chance to stake a claim for a contract, but it was the English side, featuring the likes of N’Gotty, and De Vries who dominated the opening 20 minutes of the game with Thistle struggling to retain the ball for any length of time.

The Foxes had plenty of possession with strikers De Vries and Fryatt proving a handful up front, and the pace of young full-back Joe Mattock also causing problems, but apart from a Clemence shot that went narrowly over, a few last ditch tackles (mostly by Scott Boyd) stopped the visitors from testing Jonny Tuffey.

After all their early possession, it was Thistle who were to come closest to scoring in the 25th minute when Buchanan collected Roberts’ pass inside the area and did well to hold off a challenge before stabbing a shot goalwards from close range, but the keeper was well positioned to make the save. Roberts tested the keeper again a few minutes later after a quick move down the right wing had created the opening, but again Chambers was up to the task.

Surprisingly the French trialist was subbed with less than half an hour of the game gone (he apparently had a slight hamstring problem before the game, but there was no sign of any treatment, so is it au revoir for him?). His replacement was Jimmy Gibson and the diminutive midfielder had a good game, and almost set up great chance for Buchanan by playing a neat one-two with Rowson and then setting the striker free with a terrific through ball, but although Buchanan had timed his run well, he couldn’t get the ball down quickly enough and was forced wide before shooting weakly at goal.

After the interval the visitors again started the half strongly, and they broke the deadlock with less than ten minutes gone when Thistle failed to properly clear allowing half-time substitute Odhiambo to collect a through ball and he blasted a fine shot past Tuffey to make it 1-0.

Adam Strachan’s introduction in place of a quiet Stevie Murray injected a bit of pace into the Thistle attack and his crossfield run sparked off a good move that resulted in Buchanan collecting a pass from Donnelly but his well-hit shot was deflected behind.

Leciester sub Shaun Newton angled a drive just wide soon afterwards, but they sealed the win with 20 minutes left when Tuffey failed to hold a shot and Wesolowski stepped away from Boyd’s poor challenge before turning and firing home goal number two.

Gary Harkins came closest to pulling a goal back for Thistle when the ball broke to him inside the area from a corner but his shot on the turn was blasted over the bar. The only other chance of note came from one of the very few Thistle crosses, Strachan’s ball from the right wing was inviting but Donnelly was just inches away from connecting at the far post.

Jimmy Gibson limped off near the end after being caught late, and he was replaced by the small French striker who was reportedly already away (probably just a matter of time though, why else have a trialist if you’re not going to play him?), but like fellow subs Chaplain and McStay, he wasn’t really too involved.

So for the second game in succession Thistle struggled to create much and although they won’t face many teams like Leicester this season, the Jags clearly need to add some different options in attack, although defensively - apart from the second goal - they didn’t do too badly.

Jimmy Gibson played well and hopefully his injury was only a minor one, Boyd did his chances of getting a game in the centre of defence no harm, and Ian McCall must also have been impressed with how Strachan played when he came on in the second half.