One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Another disappointing crowd turned out at Firhill this weekend to see the Jags take on bottom side Airdrie United, and once again the fans were left feeling rather despondent about the fare on offer as the Jags slipped to their second home defeat in succession.

Both managers made changes following defeats last weekend, Thistle were without a number of players with illness making Mark Roberts a late call-off, but Archibald, Smith and Jimmy Gibson were all available and all three came straight into the starting line-up. For Airdrie, Ian Harty replaced Prunty in attack, while former Jag Stuart Taylor returned to the starting line-up. Former Thistle captain Marc Smyth also started.

The visitors had an early chance when the ball broke kindly for Ian Harty and as keeper Jonny Tuffey hesitated on his line, the former Clyde striker closed in on goal only to shoot tamely into Tuffey’s arms. That summed up the poor quality of play from both teams in this match, particularly in the early stages neither side were able to string together successive passes never mind take control of the game.

Thistle did slowly begin to play themselves into the match and for the third game in a row on-loan Hibs striker Sam Morrow hit the crossbar. Although unlike his previous efforts he wasn’t unlucky with an effort at goal, this time he almost got lucky when his cross from the right sailed over the keeper and came back off the woodwork before being scrambled to safety.

That was about as close as Thistle came though, they were unable to get the final pass right, and their fortunes weren’t helped by Morrow looking totally out-of-sorts up front and Jimmy Gibson having a bit of a nightmare on his return to the side after injury. The Jags captain put his teammates in trouble on a few occasions, and it was only down to poor play from Airdrie that they weren’t able to take advantage.

However, as the half wore on you could sense that Airdrie were beginning to take some confidence from the fact that home side were just as poor as them, and in the 36th minute, after Thistle had once again gifted them possession, the visitors worked the ball out to the left where Twigg and Holmes combined to beat Sives and the latter squared the ball for Harty to bundle the ball home from close range.

The goal prompted Thistle into making a change; Jimmy Gibson’s ankle injury was clearly still giving him some problems so Barry Smith took over his defensive midfield role with Boyd coming into the centre of defence alongside Archibald.

Following the reorganisation Thistle set about trying to get back on level terms but Brady’s snap shot from the edge of the area was comfortably saved by keeper Stephen Robertson, and instead it was Airdrie who came closest to adding a second when the defence struggled to clear a ball into the area and when Tuffey’s punch was met by an overhead kick from Harty, the Jags keeper was more than a little relieved that it came straight back to him.

There had to be an improvement for Thistle in the second half, and thankfully there was. They should have been back on level terms with just a couple of minutes played, but Young’s header from Strachan’s crossed was superbly blocked by the keeper, and Morrow could only find the side netting with the rebound.

Thistle tried to keep up the pressure but seconds later when Strachan slid a fine pass through to Robertson inside the area, he was judged to have been just offside and the early momentum petered out. A misplaced pass from Young then gave Airdrie the chance to break forward, Holmes got on the end of the cross but his looping header didn’t give Tuffey too many problems.

With just over an hour gone Smith and Sives combined down the right and the latter did well to get in a cross, but there were no takers for his ball across the face of goal. It was Strachan who was looking the player most likely to create something for Thistle and after he’d won a corner on the left he took it himself, once again Young got on the end of his ball into the box, but again he was denied by a good save from Robertson.

The keeper was called into action again seconds later after Morrow had knocked the ball back to Strachan, but the boot of a defender took the sting out of his shot and Robertson was able to make a fairly comfortable save. In the 75th minute Strachan beat his man out on the wing but this time failed to set up a chance as his cutback was behind the Thistle forwards.

Thistle were desperately pushing forward in search of an equaliser as the game headed into the closing stages, but although there were a couple of further scrambles inside the penalty area, no one in red and yellow could get a telling touch.

With time fast running out the frustration got too much for Alan Archibald and he reacted badly to a late challenge from Kevin McDonald, he jumped up to confront the Airdrie midfielder, recklessly barging into him and pushing his forehead into his face as Offiong had done to Keogh last weekend. McDonald totally overreacted going down like a ton of bricks despite minimal contact, but Archie can have no complaints as the ref had little choice but to send him off, with the Airdrie player eventually receiving a yellow for the tackle.

Despite being a man down there was still one final chance for Thistle to grab a point from the game. Once again it was Strachan who created it, he drove forward and slipped a pass through to Brady just inside the area, but despite being in a great position he rather snatched at the shot and blasted it over the bar.

Thistle created enough chances to earn a point from the game, but it was probably fitting that a single, scrappy goal was all that separated two struggling sides. The win allows Airdrie to cling onto slim hopes of avoiding the drop, but on the evidence of this game, it’ll only prolong them temporarily. And while it’s still the case that a couple of wins should be enough to keep Thistle out of danger, right now it’s hard to see where they are going to come from.

Man of the match:
ADAM STRACHAN - There weren’t many candidates today, Boyd didn’t put a foot wrong after he came on, Archibald was solid as usual until his late indiscretion and Young had worked hard up front with no support from his strike partner, but head and shoulders above them was Strachan. Just about every positive move in the second half came through him, and he fully deserved to be named MotM.

Thistle: Tuffey 6, Smith 5, Robertson 5, Brady 5, Sives 4, Archibald 6, J Gibson 3 (Boyd 39, 6), Young 6, Morrow 4, Ferguson 5 (McConalogue 70, 5), Strachan 7.
Unused subs; Arthur, Cairns, Hodge

Airdrie U:Robertson, Proctor, McKenna, Smyth, Lukaszewski, McGowan, Taylor, Harty (McDougall 70), Twigg (McGuire 87), Holmes (McKeown 77), MacDonald.
Unused subs; Hollis, Potter.