One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Thistle maintained their unbeaten start to their league campaign against Clyde today, but although the Jags had a couple of decent chances it was the home side who came closest to scoring when McHale battered the crossbar from distance. And in the end the large travelling support, who made up over half of the 3000 crowd, had to settle for a point in what was a scrappy encounter.

Jags boss Dick Campbell stuck to a 3-5-2 formation, making two changes from the midweek defeat at Motherwell. McCulloch replacing the injured Robertson in the centre of defence and Pat Keogh preferred to Graham Gibson up front. Billy Gibson and, bizarrely, Mark Roberts were asked to provide the width in the two wingback positions.

Clyde put their selection problems of last weekend to one side and with only Craig McKeown still sidelined, manager Joe Miller was able to welcome back Malone and McGowan from suspension, while new signings Andy Ferguson started in place of Arbuckle in attack, with former Jags trialist Ryan McCann on the bench.

The two sides have had very differing starts to the season, but there was little to choose between them today. The match was slow to get going; Scott McCulloch’s 30-yard free kick clipping the post on it’s way past and Ferguson knocking the ball wide from Imrie’s pass at the other end were the only notable incidents in the first 20 minutes.

Things began to liven up a little as the game progressed, and the home side had a narrow escape when Donnelly’s corner was flicked goalwards at the near post by Roberts, but between them a couple of defenders on the line were able to scramble the ball to safety. Roberts was almost the villain at the other end five minutes later when his mistake allowed Imrie to run into space down the Thistle right, but his cutback went behind the onrushing Ferguson and the defence were able to clear.

Some neat footwork then allowed Donnelly to set up Brown Ferguson for a shot, but from 20-yards his drive flashed just over. Clyde’s Eddie Malone then showed him how it should be done, he made the space for himself on the edge of the box, turning one way then another before aiming for Arthur’s top left corner, but the Jags keeper dived to tip it over the bar.

On 31 minutes Paul Cherrie was called into action at the other end to deny Donnelly after he’’d ran onto Roberts’ fine through ball, the Clyde keeper managing to get something on it as Donnelly tried to lift the ball over him, and he was then fouled by Keogh as the former Clyde player tried to knock home the loose ball.

After a spate of five bookings, four of them for Clyde, in a 15-minute spell, the game quietened down and we drifted towards half time with only one further chance. It fell to the home side when the impressive Malone whipped a dangerous ball in behind the Jags defence to Ferguson, but Boyd recovered well and put in a terrific block to deny the former Dundee striker the chance to test Arthur.

There wasn’t much improvement in the second half; a Billy Gibson free kick was comfortably saved by Cherrie early on, but the Clyde keeper was almost undone by route-one football in the 54th minute. Keogh had been winning a lot of balls in the air for Thistle, which sadly seemed the preferred mode of attack today, but to little effect as no one was able to get on the end of the second ball. However, on this occasion, when Arthur’s clearance was headed on by Keogh, Donnelly stole in between McGregor and Cherrie to head it past the keeper, but agonisingly just off target.

In his 100th appearance for the Jags, Billy Gibson finally got involved in the 59th minute when he combined with Donnelly before driving at the home defence, but after a good run he tugged his shot disappointingly wide of goal.

The game had been rather flat up to this point, but the home side stepped up a gear in the 65th minute and Thistle responded to briefly liven up proceedings. Firstly Brown Ferguson presented namesake Andy Ferguson with a sight of goal when he failed to deal with a long ball, but Arthur was able to deny him with a good save. The Jags keeper was nothing more than a spectator a few minutes later though when Paul McHale strode forward unchallenged and unleashed a ferocious drive from 25-yards, and Thistle were fortunate to see it crash off the underside of the crossbar before being able to knock it to safety.

After that lucky escape Pat Keogh drove forward with the ball at his feet, and although Donnelly was unable to make anything of his pass, it eventually fell to Roberts and his shot was deflected wide. From the resultant corner Roberts was again denied when the keeper blocked his near post header, and then from the opposite side, McCulloch’s corner was headed narrowly over by Sives.

After that flurry of activity the game descended to it’s previous scrappy level. The introduction of Strachan and then Graham Gibson for the closing ten minutes or so freshened things up a little, but although the two nearly worked an opportunity between them thanks to Strachan’s determined run, it only resulted in a corner from which Thistle were unable to cause any problems.

In the last couple of minutes both sides had one final chance to win it; McConalogue set up Ferguson but his well-struck shot was off target, while at the other end Kenny Arthur touched Imrie’s overhead kick from a corner onto the bar. But a winner for either side would have been harsh, both were pretty disappointing and a share of the points was just about deserved.

Apart from the Albion Rovers fiasco, it was Thistle’s poorest display of the season - and Campbell seems determined to stick with the 3-5-2 formation immaterial of whether he has the players to do it justice. Wasting top scorer Mark Roberts at right wingback was criminal, and both he and Billy Gibson on the opposite wing, were practically non-existent today. Three wins in the opening week of the season seems a while ago now, and although the Jags are still unbeaten in the league, that’s now four games without a win, and next up is the visit of title hopefuls St Johnstone…

Man of the match:
KENNY ARTHUR - Keogh won everything in the air today, but to little effect, while the back three were pretty solid, but overall it was a rather flat performance throughout the team. However, keeper Kenny Arthur made a couple of fine saves, one in either half, and with little to show at the other end, he certainly did his part in earning Thistle a point.

Thistle: Arthur 7, Sives 7, McCulloch 6, Boyd 7, Ferguson 6, Brady 6, J Gibson 6 (Strachan 72), Donnelly 5 (McConalogue 85), Keogh 7, Roberts 5, B Gibson 5 (G Gibson 77).
Unused subs; Tuffey, Hodge

Clyde: Cherrie, McGregor, Malone, Higgins, Harris, McHale, Bryson, Masterton, Ferguson (Arbuckle 68), Imrie, McGowan (McCann 75).
Unused subs; Hunter, Scott, Bradley