SPFL League One
Sat 24 October, 2020. Kick Off: - 15:00
Firhill Stadium
In line with Scottish Government guidelines, this match is a closed doors match. It is imperative that all fans support the club and protect the squad by staying away from the stadium and enjoying all content safely from home.
Matchday Coverage:
Live Stream
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Pay-per-view Pass
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Audio Commentary
Audio Commentary will be available for supporter on JagZone.
Starting at 2:30, tune in to hear Michael Max and Christopher Dobie take you through the ninety minutes of action, with thirty minutes of comprehensive build up before the game.
At half-time the latest of our Jags Zoom catch ups sees Christopher Dobie speak with CIaran McKenna.
In Game Coverage
We’ll have our usual in-depth text commentary right here on ptfc.co.uk. Social Media Updates will also be available through our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels.
Post Match
After the 90 minutes of action we’ll have post match reaction from the Jags camp on JagZone following the full time whistle. A full game replay and comprehensive highlights package will also follow on JagZone.
Match Programme
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Half Time 50/50 draw
Our 50/50 draw will be conducted at half time during Saturday’s match. Tickets are available to purchase until 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.
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Druring this unique but exciting season we are looking forward to bringing you extensive matchday coverage throughout the campaign. Due to the current exceptional circumstances, our coverage may change or be impacted if a member of our media team is required to self-isolate at short notice. We thank you for your understanding and patience around this situation.
Partick Thistle play their first home league game of the new season this weekend as Airdrieonians visit Firhill. Ian McCall’s side are looking to improve on their opening day showing, which saw them fall to a 1-0 defeat against Clyde at Broadwood, by getting their first points of the new term against Ian Murray’s Diamonds. Jags assistant manager, Alan Archibald, spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the clash starting by touching on the mood of the squad following the loss to Clyde:
“I think everyone was a bit down at the start of the week; players and staff. The result was disappointing but what really hurt was the way we played because we’ve set high standards for ourselves over pre-season and we didn’t play to them on matchday,
“We got that out of our system though early in the week and the boys have trained really well since then to prepare for what’s going to be another tough fixture.”
The Maryhill men weren’t at their best last Saturday but Archie says there are no excuses for that as everyone should have known what to expect.
“We had played much better than that in the Betfred Cup games and the players will say themselves that it wasn’t good enough at Broadwood.
“The manager, Neil Scally and I have all been involved in this league before and quite a few of the players have too so we know how tough it is. Every team we come up against is going to have that same desire to win so we have to make sure we match that ourselves.”
Airdrieonians are this Saturday’s opposition and, having finished third in League One last term, Alan is expecting a difficult game.
“I’ve watched a bit of them and they’re actually very similar to Clyde in many ways. They were a real threat on the attack against Peterhead last week and you can see that blend of guys who know the league and hungry young players with something to prove so we’ll have to be on our game to beat them.”
Archie then gave us an update on team news going into the game against the Diamonds.
“Zak Rudden is going to be missing again. He actually caught his knee during the Queen of the South game and then felt it a bit during training following that game so we didn’t risk him for the Clyde game and he’s now had a scan and is going to see a specialist so hopefully we get good news on that front.
“Tam O’Ware has been back in training a little bit. He did some soft stuff with us earlier in the week and has also been working with Ross the sports scientist and Katy the physio but anything relating to the hamstring requires a lot of patience.”
When Tam does return, the defensive unit will be at full strength and Alan says that added competition will only improve a backline that he’s already encouraged by.
“If we take the last five minutes of last week’s game away because we put Darren Brownlie up front, I think we looked very solid. Darren has been brilliant so far and it was great to see Jamie Sneddon make some excellent saves as well but we do have to be better defending after turnovers because that’s when Clyde were creating their chances.
“Overall, there is good competition in the squad. With the goalkeepers, young Kieran has come in and done well in training then in the centre of defence we have Rhys Breen and hopefully Tam O’Ware very soon to put pressure on the guys that are starting.”
More exclusive preview interviews with Thistle assistant manager, Alan Archibald and James Penrice are now available for JagZone subscribers to watch – log in to view.
We’re streaming our clash with Airdrieonians on Saturday afternoon. A pay-per-view pass costs just £10 for this match. Click here to purchase your pay-per-view pass.
We’ll also have extended highlights and a full game replay of the opening league match of the season on JagZone this Saturday evening.
Article Copyright © 2020. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
Partick Thistle and Airdrie went head-to-head on the second round of fixtures in League One. The Jags made four changes from their defeat to Clyde with Wright, Breen, Spitttal and Graham all coming back into the team.
The first half started off well for Thistle as they pressed well for the opening goal. The first chance for the Jags fell to Brian Graham, this came after Richard Foster fired in a dangerous ball from the right-hand side. The ball was lofted to the back post, Airdrie keeper Max Currie got his hand to it, but it was flapped away to only as far as Graham. He tried to get his shot off, but it was blocked, and the danger was cleared by the Airdrie defence.
It was only moments later Thistle had another chance. It was good interlink play from the Jags midfield which saw Docherty slip Murray through on goal. It looked certain to be the opener for the Jags, but the linesman put his flag up indicating it was offside, a call that was very close.
However with all the pressure Thistle were putting on Airdrie, they were reminded of the danger they possessed as a shot from just outside the Thistle box went whizzing past the post.
The Jags continued to pursue the opener. A lovely nutmeg and piece of skill from James Penrice on the left-hand side seen him gain space and drive into the box, his low cross almost found Shea Gordon, but the clearance fell back to Penrice. His right footed cross found Graham, but he couldn’t get a clean header on the ball and the keeper wasn’t troubled.
A handful of chances continued to fall for Thistle with Penrice having a shot from range go over the bar and a Gordon lay off for Murray was saved. Right on the half hour mark Airdrie almost had the ball in the back of the net from a corner. The ref blew for a foul on a Thistle player, but this was a sign of things to come.
Five minutes later a corner was whipped in, Thistle manged to deal with the initial danger, but the second ball manged to find Dale Carrick at the back post unmarked and Airdrie took the lead.
This seemed to have kicked the Jags into life as they looked fired up to get the equaliser. Spittal had a chance from a free kick but the keeper saved it with ease however, a lovely run that beat the offside trap from Shea Gordon seen him and Brian Graham run through on goal. All Gordon had to do was pass it to Graham and he slotted home the equaliser 5 minutes from half time.
The second half started as Thistle has ended it, on top, it was only a minute into the half we seen what was coming for Thistle as Murray swung in a cross from the right-hand side. The cross found Gordon’s head, but he couldn’t steer it towards goal.
Moments later the same scenario played out again. A Murray cross from the right creates problems for the Airdrie defence, as Murray’s cross found Gordon in acres of space, all he had to do was direct it towards goal, but he failed to connect with it properly and it went trickling out for goal kick.
Another handful of chances for Thistle were created as Penrice delivered a dangerous cross into the box. It was met with Brownlie, but he couldn’t direct it towards goal, whilst Graham created chance after he flicked a pass from Docherty around the corner to find Murray, whose resulting cross couldn’t find Graham.
Just before the hour mark Blair Spittal almost scored the goal of the season with a wonderful right footed volley from outside the box, the ball was hit with power and was looking all but certain to fly into the top left-hand corner, but it crashed off the post.
A few moments later, following a swift Thistle counter attack, Spittal was found on the edge of the Airdrie box down on the left-hand side. He collected the ball from Murray, took two steps to his right and curled the ball into the top right-hand corner giving Thistle the lead in the game for the first time.
Thistle done well to manage the game out for the last half an hour, limiting Airdrie to very little chances with the most dangerous attack from Airdrie coming 10 minutes from the end as Breen puts in a last-ditch tackle to prevent the Airdrie striker going through on goal.
The win gave Thistle their first three points of the league campaign ahead of a first trip to the Balmoral Stadium to face Cove Rangers next weekend.
It was back to Firhill league action for Partick Thistle as we welcomed Airdrieonians to Firhill Stadium. Despite falling behind in the first half, Thistle fought back to run out 2-1 winners courtesy of goals from Brian Graham and Blair Spittal. Ptfc.co.uk spoke to Thistle gaffer Ian McCall to get his thoughts on the game.
“It’s a win, that’s the most important thing. I felt we deserved the win the game, although you have to give Airdrie a lot of credit for the last 10-15 minutes of the game. They are really dangerous from set pieces and got a lot of balls into our box and we defended them really well to see the game out.
“We had a good start to the second half and Blair hit a cracking goal that turned out to be the winner. We had two or three really good chances to put the game to bed but we defended really well to get the three points, which was the most important thing.”
Thistle hit back through two well worked goals which saw Brian Graham and Blair Spittal get off the mark in the league goalscoring charts.
“Blair hit a fantastic strike which he scored but he also had a terrific effort which hit the post. I thought Connor Murray made a great impact on the game and he was involved in the two goals today. He made an excellent pass for Shea Gordon, who timed his run terrifically to set up Brian Graham. I was pleased for Shea as he is an important player for us and sometimes people don’t see what he brings to the team.
“The second goal is a great goal from Blair after a great pass from Murray. He hit the post a few minutes earlier with a terrific strike and you are thinking it might not be your day but then he pops up with an even better goal. I think anyone who was watching the game on the stream would have got a great view of that one.”
Thistle had to defend a sustained period of pressure with Airdrie pushing late on to grab the equaliser but the gaffer was pleased with how his side was able to repel the threat.
“I thought defensively we were very good, particularly when Airdrie were getting the ball into our box. Rhys Breen, Darren Brownlie and Brian Graham were all dominant in the air in the last ten minutes to help get us over the line.”
There was a number of enforced changes with Jamie Sneddon and Ciaran McKenna dropping out the squad through injury but the manager was pleased with the performances of Kieran Wright and Rhys Breen who came into the starting line up.
“Unfortunately Jamie and Ciaran picked up injuries which meant we had to change things around but I felt that Kieran and Rhys did well coming into the line up. These are guys who haven’t played a lot of competitive first team football but they did really well. We also didn’t know until 1pm today if Ross Docherty or Brian Graham were going to be able to play but I was really pleased both managed to come through the 90 minutes. All that mattered today was winning, it’s as simple as that and we did it.”
More reaction interviews with Thistle gaffer Ian McCall, Brian Graham and Kieran Wright will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch – log in to view.
We’ll also have extended highlights and a full game replay of our first league victory of the season on JagZone this evening.
Article Copyright © 2020. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
Sat 24 October, 2020
SPFL League One 
Firhill Stadium
Thistle come from behind to collect their first league win of the season.
Brian Graham equalised an earlier Carrick goal before Blair Spittal scored a goal fit to win any game.
Airdrie will feel aggrieved to have taken nothing from a game and had Thistle under sustained pressure in the closing minutes.
Graham heads clear yet another long throw.
Foster knocks the ball away from goal.
Thistle will have another long throw to defend.
Into the third minute of injury time.
Play to restart with a Thistle goal kick. Bit of work still be done before the points are safe though.
The 90 minutes have come and gone. Into injury time now.
Thistle try to break through Lyons but he is penalised for a foul.
Graham back defending heads the corner clear.
As expected it is a throw deep into the Thistle box. Thistle defend it well and when the ball is returned towards goal it goes out for a goal kick.
Thistle are under a bit of pressure and are having to defend a throw right next to the corner flag. Long throw in coming.
Thomson finds room for a cross from the Airdrie right but the ball drifts away from any waiting team mate.
Lyons eventually finds himself crowded out a he tries to advance deep into the Airdrie penalty box.
Fordyce tries an overhead kick from outside the box that isn't too far wide of Wright's left hand post.
Wright produces an excellent stop to tip over a rasping drive from Thomson.
McCann fires over an inviting cross from the left that McKay can connect with but not direct on target.
There is a chance for Graham but he nods over.
It's a Blair Switch Project at Firhill.
I stole that line from Twitter last week.
MacDonald gets into a good position wide on the right but his cross is poor and goes out for a goal kick.
MacDonald's corner is cleared but although Airdrie win the ball back when another cross comes in it is safely gathered at his front post by Wright.
Airdrie have made a positive response to falling behind and they spurn an excellent chance to level things as Fordyce lifts a shot over the bar after a Thomson cross hadn't been cleared.
And Thistle make the most of any let off and Spittal denied minutes earlier by the post curls an absolute beauty wide of Currie and into the net.
There are furious appeals for an Airdrie penalty as Carrick goes down. We might be glad there is no VAR to review that.
Bannigan takes this corner. Airdrie clear but only as far as Spittal who nearly uproots the post with a thundering drive.
Curie tips Docherty's shot round the post.
It's a decent corner from Penrice but neither Gordon now Graham can connect with it.
Penrice's cross won't fall for Graham in front of goal.
It's a similar outcome to Penrice's last corner with a Breen header dropping wide of goal.
Murray tries to prevent Currie from quickly getting the ball forward and collects the game's first yellow card for his pains.
Although Thistle have started the half well there is a chance for Airdrie but Carrick snatches at his shot and it goes wide.
Penrice takes the corner and although Breen is able to get his head to it he can't his header down.
Gordon's cross aimed for the waiting Graham is sliced over the bar.
Murray and Gordon again combine. This time Gordon doesn't make the proper contact with Murray's low cross and knocks the ball across the face of goal rather than towards goal.
Murray is able to get the ball over from the right but Gordon's header is too high. Positive start to the half from Thistle though.
It's level at the break with Brian Graham finding an equaliser 5 minutes after Carrick had headed Airdrie in front.
It's been a less than convincing display from Thistle though although Currie has has been required to produce some good stops. Most notably from Murray while the score was still 0-0 and then from Graham just before half-time.
It's nearly an injury time strike for Thistle as Graham's effort from distance forces Currie into a smart stop.
They make a mess of the free kick though and Thisle, unsuccessfully, try to hit them on the break.
Airdrie are going to have a free kick wide on the right and a chance to threaten the Thistle goal.
A strong run from Spittal has the Airdrie defence firmly on the back foot. He progresses deep into the box but his cross aimed for Gordon is cleared.
It's a timely equaliser for Thistle as Airdrie are left looking for an offside flag that doesn't come as Gordon squares for Graham to net Thistle's first league goal of the season.
Spittal aims for goal with the free kick. He gets his effort on target but Currie is able to make a comfortable enough save close to his left hand post.
Murray is fouled and Thistle have a free kick close to the left corner of the Airdrie box.
Thistle find themselves trailing. A cross from the right find Carrick at the back post and he is able to head unchallenged into the corner of the Thistle net.
Airdrie work a short corner and when the ball is eventually delivered into the box Thistle are thankful to see the flag go up for offside as the ball comes off the post.
The game is starting to open up and Breen needs to make a timely intervention to clear a low cross from the Airdrie right.
It's a good corner from Spittal but it is missed by everyone. Murray gathers the ball on the right but his cross goes behind for a goa; kick.
Thistle are close to opening the scoring but Currie makes a good stop to deny Murray a goal.
Thistle are carless in possession of the ball in midfield and Airdrie are able to create an opening rfo a shot but McKay's effort is wide of target.
Thistle do not make a good job of defending the corner but they do, eventually, manage to scramble the ball clear.
A Foster cross from the right is just a little too high for Graham. Thistle retain possession and when another cross comes in, this time from the left, Graham does get his head to it but there is no power in the header and Currie gathers.
MacDonald's corner is a very poor one and goes straight out of play over Wright's crossbar.
Thistle are forced into defending a long throw into the box. The ball is cleared but only to the edge of the box where a shot is sent wide of Wright's right hand post.
A pass is threaded through to Spittal inside the Airdrie box but the flag goes up for offside. Thistle on top at the moment though.
Thistle threaten down the left but Murray's cross is cleared.
It's Penrice with Thistle's first corner of the afternoon. He whips the ball towards the back post with a bit of pace but nobody can get on the end of it.
Spitall's pass for Gordon is headed clear for a Thistle throw near the Airdrie corner flag. When the ball comes into the box Currie in the Airdrie goals flaps at the ball and Thistle exert some pressure for the first time.
Some early action for Wright as he gathers a low cross at his front post.
Thistle kick the game off and will be shooting towards the John Lambie Stand in the first half.
Kick-off in the opening league game of he season is just under 30 minutes away and Thistle will be looking to bounce back from last week's defeat at Clyde in the best possible fashion.
Ian McCall's starting eleven shows 4 changes from the side that started against Clyde with injury denying him the services of two players.
Out with injury go Jamie Sneddon and Ciaran McKenna while Joe Cardle and Salim Kouider-Aissa drop to the bench.
Sneddon's injury gives Kieran Wright the opportunity to make his THistle debut in goal while Rhys Breen slots into the heart of the Thistle defence in place of McKenna.
Blair Spittal gets the nod to start ahead of Cardle while a now free from league suspension Brian Graham starts up top for Thistle.