Tuesday 15 August 2006
| Written by Kenny Pieper | ||||||||||
| Tuesday, 15 August 2006 | ||||||||||
Thistle’s season was brought back down to earth with a bang tonight after an insipid performance against an Albion Rovers side who thoroughly deserved to win this cup-tie, courtesy of goals from McBride and Chaplain, Brown Ferguson netted Thistle’s sole reply. In fact, this was as bad as the last week had been good with, despite the bulk of possession throughout the game, there being very few goal attempts to speak of. A small crowd, crammed into one end of the Jackie Husband stand, perhaps reflected the pricing policy set by both clubs for a mid-week cup game. Dick Campbell made only one change from Saturday with Mark Roberts sitting this one out, new boy John Robertson fitting into the centre of defence and Brown Ferguson moving out right in midfield. Albion Rovers have not experienced the same kind of start as Thistle but have performed well against us over the past couple of seasons and must have fancied their chances, so were looking to get their season back on track with a good performance. They certainly achieved that. It was the Third Division side who got off to the best of starts when, after a mere twenty seconds, (Doyle was played through only to blast the ball over the bar. Even at this early stage, it should have been a kick up the backside for a defence which I thought looked sloppy and arrogant in the first half. While Thistle came back sharply – some good interplay between the impressive Sives and Ferguson and a terrific pass form Robertson putting Graeme Gibson through- it would be the wee Rovers who opened the scoring after only three minutes. What seemed a harmless piece of play in the right hand corner area appeared to be cleared up by McCulloch who clumsily let the ball slip to a Rovers player. His quick cross was met by Chaplain who struck it well, Kenny Arthur saved this first attempt but the ball fell neatly for McBride who struck the ball home from about 6 yards. 1-0 Rovers and it was fully deserved. It was an awful mistake by McCulloch, a player who seems to be immune from criticism from the fans. I can’t help thinking it would have been a different atmosphere if someone like Darren Brady had made that mistake. Thistle had plenty of possession during the first half but rarely made any use of it. They played the ball about well, with Simon Donnelly certainly looking up for the game early on, and Brown Ferguson looking to fit in well down the right hand side. After 13 minutes an excellent through pass from Scott Boyd found Donnelly on the edge of the box. His neat chest control laid the ball expertly onto Graeme Gibson but he was adjudged to have handled it in the area. Donnelly followed this up a minute later with some excellent hold up play in midfield, timing the ball perfectly for a Graeme Gibson run. His lay off, when perhaps an attempt on goal seemed a better option, found Billy Gibson out right, but his cross came to nothing. Donnelly was increasingly looking like a cut above the rest of the players on the field as everything seemed to go through him. Some nice trickery from Brady after 17 minutes invited a neat wee piece of inter-passing with Donnelly who ultimately lost control in the area. Soon after, an excellent Brown Ferguson ball found Donnelly in the box but his cute pass was miscontrolled by Graeme Gibson and cleared by the Albion Rovers defence. The subsequent corner from McCulloch brought Thistle level. A perfectly flighted near post ball was headed past the keeper by a Rovers defender under pressure from Brown Ferguson. The announcer claimed the goal for the Thistle man, but my view clearly showed that he never got a touch to it. It mattered little, however, as Thistle were level and would surely go on to win this game now.The restart saw Thistle quickly on the attack and Donnelly once again gathered the ball in midfield and played Billy Gibson through. His skilful footwork allowed him to turn the defender but his chip went just over. Rovers were not seeing much of the ball at this juncture as Thistle pushed forward but his would prove a risky tactic. While the first goal came form a terrible defensive error, it would be unfair to attribute the same to Rovers’ second goal after 28 minutes. Thistle had men forward but the ball broke to Savage who held it up expertly, turned Sives inside out and played it through to Chaplain. Despite the chasing pack, he controlled the ball well and ran on to place it superbly past Arthur for 2-1. This was a great goal and, while in terms of possession Rovers were not in it, they thoroughly deserved to be in front. Their forward players were terrific all night and what scraps they were given were used to great effect. The rest of the first half continued in much the same vein. Mostly Thistle possession to very little purpose. The only real chance on goal again fell to Rovers who could have gone further ahead after 40 minutes when Savage was sent clear only to be closed down. But if the first goal had seemed like a slight murmur, the second one seemed to shock the players and the crowd into something like reality. If things did not improve in the second half, we were going out. No changes at half time for either side but Thistle seemed to be the hungrier and in the opening seconds of the half, some good work by Brady led to a McCulloch cross from the left which was missed by Graeme Gibson. Soon after, a rare error in the Rovers’ defence allowed Sives in on the right but his hard drive across goal found no takers. Darren Bardy had his ankle clipped in front of the ref, but Mr Hardie, who had an explicably poor game (how unusual?!) saw nothing wrong and waved play on, only to allow treatment for the player soon after. Rovers were at this point quite happy to sit back and let Thistle have the ball as there was no real threat at all on their goal in the second half. Scott Boyd tried to walk the ball through the defence when it seemed easier to shoot after 52 minuets and Graham Gibson, who had worked hard all night to no avail, was resembling the famous chicken with no head. Simon Donnelly all but disappeared when the going got tough and very few players rose to the challenge in the second half. In fact, in the few times Rovers managed to get the ball they always looked like breaking successfully and scoring again. As the home side tired, there were more chances for Rovers. Most notably just after the hour mark when an increasingly careless Thistle gave the ball away sloppily. Rovers broke and some neat passing allowed Chaplain through but he chipped narrowly over. Adam Strachan replaced the hapless McCulloch after 64 minutes and the youngster attempted to put some fire in the bellies of the homes side but although he was able to take on and beat his man on a number of occassions, as we have come to expect, his final ball continues to disappoint. He did manage to deliver one dangerous cross, but it was snatched away from the head of Graham Gibson by the keeper, and that was about as good as it got for Thistle. Darren Brady was booked after 72 minutes for some needless backchat which seemed to continue for some time after. A silly booking at a silly time of the season. Billy Gibson was replaced after 82 minutes by McConalogue and, by my recollection, the sub touched the ball once – a header. A striker on to chase a goal I presume. And he touched the ball once. The game petered out without any real increase in pace or urgency in the Thistle side and this for me was particularly disappointing. Okay, it’s early season and not the most important cup but we needed to continue with the winning mentality. At the full time whistle, the Rovers fans celebrated a great victory for them. They didn’t hang on, they didn’t have to struggle. Good luck to them for the rest of the season. As for Thistle, let us hope that this is out of out system by Saturday and just a blip. Otherwise, we could be in for another long, hard season. Man of the match:
Thistle: Arthur 6, Sives 7, McCulloch 5 (Strachan 65, 6), Boyd 6, Robertson 6, J Gibson 6, Brady 6, Donnelly 6, G Gibson 6, Ferguson 6, B Gibson 5 (McConalogue 82) Albion - Ewings, Moffat, McGhee, Lennon, Friel, Donnelly, Doyle, Chaplain, Felvus (Walker 73), Savage (Chisholm 65), McBride (Cleary 88). |
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