One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Tuesday 25 July 2006

St Mirren 1 - 2 Thistle

Thistle notched up another pre-season win tonight, this time defeating St Mirren 2-1 at Love Street thanks to two first half goals from Simon Donnelly and Darren Brady. John Sutton pulled one back for the Saints at the start of the second half, but Thistle then weathered the early storm and there was no more scoring.

Both teams lined up in 3-5-2 formations, there was no sign of Marc Smyth for the Jags, so Brown Ferguson slotted in beside Sives and Boyd at the back, and that was the only change from the starting eleven who comfortably defeated Alloa at the weekend. On the bench, former St Johnstone midfielder Ryan McCann was named as a trialist. St Mirren gave home debuts to Garry Brady, Richard Brittain and Alex Burke.

The SPL new boys looked the slightly more assured side early on, and McConalogue’s lack of defensive prowess in his left wingback role presented them with an early chance when he misjudged a ball and allowed Iain Anderson to win possession and set up Kean for a chance, but he blasted high over the bar.

Thistle haven’t looked too shabby going forward so far in pre-season though, and they responded when an excellent long pass from Boyd created an opening, Mark Roberts eventually got a cross in from the right but Donnelly’s first time effort was straight at the keeper.

St Mirren again threatened when new signing Garry Brady fizzed an effort narrowly over Kenny Arthur’s bar and Maxwell was off target with a couple of headers from corners, but the departure of veteran defender Andy Millen signalled a change in fortunes, and Thistle were able to pose the home defence more problems.

Just before the half hour mark Graham Gibson did well to get his cross in from the left, Simon Donnelly did even better to get to it before a defender, and he then showed good strength to hold off his man before wrong-footing the keeper and slotting the ball into the bottom corner from 8-yards for a fine opening goal.

Donnelly was again involved a few minutes later when he cleverly combined with Roberts to create an opening, unfortunately Graham Gibson had ran just offside to collect Roberts’ pass, so his calm finish counted for nothing.

Mark Roberts had come agonisingly close with an effort of his own, but it wasn’t too long before the Jags were celebrating a second goal, with Donnelly again involved. He combined with Billy Gibson to set up Darren Brady, and he was given the time to step forward and drive a terrific 25-yard effort into the top corner.

Kean had an effort deflected narrowly wide and Kenny Arthur made a fine block to deny Anderson as St Mirren tried to pull a goal back before half-time, but it wasn’t until after they’d made a whole host of substitutions at the interval that St Mirren began to look anything remotely like a team who had just won the First Division.

They came out all guns blazing and the half was only a couple of minutes old when McConalogue was unable to properly clear on the edge of the area and John Sutton pounced to drive a shot high past Kenny Arthur to reduce the deficit to one goal. They threatened to equalise a few minutes later when Corcoran’s free kick was headed goalwards by Billy Mehmet, but Arthur made a superb save to deny him.

Thistle managed to weather the storm without conceding another goal, and slowly started to get back into the game. Although St Mirren were still dominating possession at this stage, the Jags defence was coping far better and at the other end Thistle were starting to threaten again. Donnelly’s long-range effort was cleared off the line after Graham Gibson had chased down a short pass-back and then Mark Roberts had a free kick saved by the keeper.

With an hour gone, Kirk Broadfoot clipped the crossbar from a free-kick after Arthur had been penalised for handling a pass-back, before the game started to get rather scrappy with Thistle introducing a host of substitutes. One of those was former St Johnstone midfielder Ryan McCann, he looked tidy enough in possession but didn’t make much impression in the 25 minutes or so he was on the park.

Thistle’s best chance to add to the scoreline came when John McGoldrick squared for Mark Roberts, but last season’s top scorer couldn’t beat the keeper from a promising position, and in truth, the game just petered out as the half wore on. St Mirren’s hopes of avoiding defeat weren’t helped when Brian McGinty limped off and they had to play the closing 15 minutes with only 10 men after using all their subs at half-time.

It was another solid performance for Thistle, and they’ve come through their strongest test yet with some positive signs. Most notably, Boyd had a fine game and Simon Donnelly showed that he could prove to be a pivotal player for us this season.

The only downside was McConalogue again being asked to play in a left wingback/midfield role, and on this showing it’s obvious that it won’t work against any half-decent opposition. And does anyone have any idea why the manager is looking at another right-sided midfielder?

STATS

Scorers: Donnelly, Brady (PTh), Sutton (STM)

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