Saturday 09 September 2006
| Written by Lianne | ||||||||||
| Saturday, 09 September 2006 | ||||||||||
A shambolic Thistle performance, combined with a good one by visitors St Johnstone, resulted in a 5-1 hammering for the Jags at Firhill today. Two goals down inside the first 10 minutes, things didn’t really improve despite an eventual change to four at the back, and Thistle’s promising start to the season was firmly consigned to the file marked false dawn. Campbell was forced to make one change to the side with Scott McCulloch unavailable for personal reasons, this allowed Derek Young to make his debut, albeit in a position he maybe didn’t expect. He lined up in the right wingback role vacated by Mark Roberts, who in turn was moved over to the left wing with Billy Gibson moving into the middle of the park. Brown Ferguson completed the positional changes by returning to the centre of defence between youngsters Boyd and Sives. St Johnstone, who welcomed back Allan McManus in place of Anderson in defence, and replaced Sheridan with new signing Willie McLaren, have made a good start to the season; unbeaten and with five wins from seven games. So it was no surprise that they started the match in confident fashion, but even they must have been surprised at how easy they found it to score. There wasn’t even two minutes on the clock when Jason Scotland collected a long ball and before Sives could close him down he’d thundered a left-foot shot from 12-yards past Arthur into the far corner of the net. The Jags defence were simply nowhere, and less than five minutes later they were just as lax when Willie McLaren was able to drift down the Thistle left and cut the ball back from the by-line for Scotland to tap home number two. It took another 12 minutes for Campbell to realise that he had to change things, which he did only after the visitors nearly added a third when Ferguson failed to anticipate the ball over the top allowing Milne to run clean through on goal, only for Arthur to deny him. The change to a 4-4-2 saw Ferguson and Billy Gibson moved to right and left back respectively, and for a spell at least, it did improve things. Keogh headed over the bar as Thistle finally tried to make some inroads on the visiting defence, but the big striker had another out-of-sorts afternoon and that was about as good as it got for him. Derek Young then sliced an effort so wide that it found Mark Roberts out on the left wing, and although his second effort soon afterwards was on target, his long-range daisy cutter was easy for the keeper to collect. Roberts had earlier given the keeper more to think about when he cut in from the left and hit a low shot that Halliwell had to smuggle round the post for a corner, but it was still St Johnstone who were looking the more likely side to score and McLaren and Mensing both saw efforts flash narrowly wide of Arthur’s goal before Milne should have done better from McLaren’s pin-point cross than send his header into the side netting from close range. However, the third goal was only delayed, as just a couple of minutes before half-time Milne got his name on the scoresheet when he ran onto another long ball over the top of the defence, Boyd was never likely to be able to deal with it and Arthur was slow to come off his line allowing the former Dundee striker to get there before him to knock the ball into the net. |
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Campbell made more changes at half-time, Steven Campbell replacing Ferguson at right back, and he later swapped wings with Billy Gibson, but although Jimmy Gibson had an effort deflected wide for a corner early on, there was no improvement from Thistle. Billy Gibson’s cross-field pass missing three Jags players and being collected by the lone player in a blue jersey summed up the miserable afternoon they were having.
St Johnstone continued to look the more likely to score, and they wrapped up a comfortable win in the 64th minute with a fourth when Scotland combined with McLaren on the break to carve open the defence and although the Trinidadian striker was denied his hat-trick by a fine block by Arthur, the Jags keeper was left helpless when Milne fired the rebound home.
Scotland had another chance a few minutes later when Hardie dispossessed Strachan and hit an early ball forward. The Saints striker once again had all the time in the world to get the ball under control and drive forward, but Arthur denied him with another fine block.
The introduction of Graham Gibson and Strachan made Thistle a little more direct and consequently more of a threat and Strachan’s fine run and low cross set up his fellow sub in the 72nd minute only for Halliwell to deny him from close range. The rebound fell for Young but his effort was blocked on the line. The Jags did manage to grab a consolation goal five minutes later when Graham Gibson ran onto a pass inside the area and knocked it past Halliwell before tripping over the keeper’s outstretched arms. From the resultant spot-kick, Simon Donnelly stepped up to fire the ball firmly past him to make it 4-1.
It was always just going to be a consolation goal, and in the closing seconds of the game St Johnstone made sure of that by adding a fifth following yet more lax defending. They had won a free-kick on the edge of the area and Sheerin quickly rolled it wide to Scotland and he simply waltzed pass the disorganised Thistle wall before firing it high past Arthur into the roof of the net to seal his hat-trick.
This was a woeful and at times shambolic performance from Thistle. St Johnstone were always going to provide a tough challenge given not only their recent form but their record at Firhill, so it was no real surprise that they enjoyed some success against a Thistle defence that hasn’t looked particularly solid despite the reasonable start to the season.
The team generally looks like it will be capable of scoring goals, but what is the point if it means you are liable to gift opponents a goal or two of a start? Campbell must look at his defence and shape of the team, and crucially, stop playing so many players in positions that aren’t their strongest. At times it looks like he’s trying to fit square pegs into round holes and is that really the best way to give your team any chance of success in what is going to be a highly competitive Division?
Man of the match:
No one - You’ve got to be joking! Billy Gibson started the game reasonably well in midfield but was soon moved to left-back and was then poor, Arthur did make some good saves to keep the score down but was beaten five times and definitely at fault for the third goal. G Gibson and Strachan did improve the team when they appeared as subs, but apart from that. And we could only laugh when we saw Brady clutching a bottle of champagne and award after the game - though to be fair he was the best of an almost invisible midfield…
Thistle: Arthur 5, Sives 4, Boyd 5, Ferguson 4 (Campbell 46, 5), Brady 5, J Gibson 4, B Gibson 5, Young 5, Donnelly 5, Keogh 4 (G Gibson 58, 6), Roberts 5 (Strachan 66, 6).
Unused subs; Tuffey, McConalogue
St Johnstone: Halliwell, Lawrie, Stanic, Mensing, McManus, James, Hardie (Stevenson 83), Sheerin, Milne (MacDonald 69), Scotland, McLaren (Sheridan 74).
Unused subs; Cuthbert, Anderson