Sat 16 April, 2022
cinch Championship 
Firhill Stadiumcinch Championship
Sat 16 April, 2022. Kick Off: - 15:00
Firhill Stadium
Matchday Information:
Ticketing Information:
Tickets are now on sale for Saturday’s home cinch Championship fixture against Raith Rovers.
All supporters are strongly encouraged to pre-purchase their tickets ahead of matchday to avoid lengthy Firhill queues.
Tickets for this match are priced at:
Adults – £20
Concessions (Over 65s, students, disabled supporter including carer, 16-18 year olds) £15
Under 16 – £5
Purchasing before matchday
Ticket purchases before matchday (16th April) are available to buy through one of the methods below:
Matchday purchases
Tickets can be purchased on matchday through online sale. The Executive Offices will not be open on matchday.
Very limited provision will be made at the Jackie Husband ticket office for home supporters, without bank cards or online access, to use cash to purchase tickets for this game.
Partick Thistle Season Ticket Holders
This fixture is on the Partick Thistle 2021/22 season ticket. Use your season ticket card, or the PTFC ticketing app at the turnstile to gain entry to Firhill. Season tickets are only valid for the stand they were purchased for with no changing between stands on a game by game basis, currently permitted.
If you are a Partick Thistle season ticket holder who is due to be self-isolating on the date of this fixture, or who develops Covid-19 symptoms between now and matchday you should not attend this fixture. In this event, please contact to update us. We will de-activate your season card for this fixture and provide access to the live stream of the match.
Away Supporters
Away fans can purchase their ticket for this league game through one of the two methods below:
Away supporter ticket prices for this match are priced at:
Adults – £20
Concessions (Over 65s, students, disabled supporter including carer, 16-18 year olds) £15
Under 16 – £5
Online ticket sales for Raith Rovers fans will be available right up until kick-off.
There will be no provision for physical in-person ticket sales for Raith Rovers supporters on matchday.
Livestream
We will be livestreaming Saturday’s game against Raith Rovers for any fans who can’t make it along to Firhill.
PPV passes are on sale now for £12 each.
Audio Commentary
Our #JagZoneLIVE commentary team will be covering the game as always, bringing subscribers comprehensive audio coverage of the 90 minutes with the show starting at 2:30pm.
You can tune in by clicking here.
Aitken Suite
The Aitken Suite, which is located within the Colin Weir Stand, will be open as a supporters’ bar for this weekend’s cinch Championship game against Raith Rovers at Firhill.
Open from noon, the suite will be showing the Scottish Cup semi-final between Hearts and Hibs which kicks-off at 12:15pm.
Thistle Taxi Shuttle Service
The Partick Thistle taxi will be back at Firhill ahead of Saturday’s match against Raith Rovers for use by any older or less able supporters free of charge.
The distinctive red and yellow taxi will be taking supporters from the bottom of McParland Way to the Jackie Husband Stand reception, starting at 1:30pm.
The Thistle taxi, kindly provided by Club sponsor Glasgow Taxis, can seat up to six supporters and will make multiple trips ahead of kick-off.
50/50 Half-Time Draw
The 50/50 half-time draw is back once again for this weekend’s game against Raith Rovers at Firhill!
Enter the draw for a chance to win one of the two fantastic prizes which are up for grabs this week. As always, 50% of the net sales will go to the first prize winner while our second prize winner will win a special ‘mystery’ prize.
Tickets to enter cost just £1 each with no limit on the amount of tickets you can purchase. Remember, the more tickets you purchase, the better your chances of winning!
Tickets can be bought online by clicking here or in-person from our sellers on matchday.
The management team’s written previews and reactions are presented by The Jags Trust. You can keep up to date with the latest from The Jags Trust by visiting their website, www.jagstrust.com.
Firhill Stadium plays host to a huge game this weekend in the cinch Championship as Partick Thistle look to book their place in this season’s promotion play-offs against Raith Rovers who sit one place and six points behind the Jags with three games to play. Thistle know a win against John McGlynn’s side would guarantee a top four finish and even a draw would pretty much do the job due to the goal difference gap between the two teams. Jags assistant manager Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk to preview to clash:
“This is obviously a very big game in the context of our season. Our goal at the start of the season was to make it into the promotion play-offs and now we’re one result away from doing that. It won’t be easy though because Raith know they really need to come here and win to keep their hopes alive for the play-offs.”
The Maryhill men returned to winning ways last Friday night against Queen of the South and Archie gave us his assessment of that victory.
“It wasn’t our best performance by any means. Queen of the South came at us and created some good chances but we were able to survive that and hit them on the counter attack which was great. We needed Jamie Sneddon a couple of times and had to rely on them missing chances too which isn’t ideal but at the end of the day we got the points which is the most important thing.
“The players know that we’ll have to be a lot better than that to get a result this weekend and with another week of training for the guys who have missed time hopefully we’ll step it up on Saturday.”
Preparing to take on Raith Rovers, Alan is expecting a tough game against this season’s SPFL Trust Trophy winners.
“We’ve seen first hand in our games against them that they’re a good team. They probably shaded things in our most recent game against them but last time at Firhill we thoroughly deserved our win so I think both teams will believe they can win the game.
“They’ve had this long run where they’ve struggled for wins but there have been some games in there that they’ll feel they could have had more from like when they were 3-1 up on Arbroath so the quality is definitely still there and we’ll have to be at it to get a victory.”
Knowing that a win would secure a spot in the play-offs, Archibald says the team are keen to get it done and dusted at the earliest possible juncture.
“Of course you want to finish it off as soon as you can. Especially because we’re against the team directly behind us – if they get a win then the momentum is with them so we want to go out there and get the job done on Saturday. As I’ve said, it won’t be easy but hopefully the win last week gives us a platform to go and win from again.”
Finally, Archie gave us the latest team news as the Thistle squad continues its return to fitness.
“It’s been great to see boys back over the last few weeks. Getting Brian Graham back has been a huge boost and then Ross Docherty and Robbie Crawford have returned after missing games so that’s been good.
“Also, Alex Jakubiak got 45 minutes at Queen of the South and came through that alright. We feel he’s got a lot to offer to the team so it’s pleasing to see him back too.
“Kyle McAllister is another one who is now back in training. He had a minor surgery a few weeks ago but was back in with the boys from Monday this week and has looked really sharp actually so the options we have on the bench now compared to three weeks ago are night and day and it should only help our cause.”
Exclusive video interviews with Lewis Mayo and Thistle assistant manager Alan Archibald will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Raith Rovers, starting at 2:30pm – click here to tune in.
We will be providing a pay-per-view option, priced at £12, for any supporter who wishes to watch a livestream of the match – click here to purchase.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
Article Copyright © 2022. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
Partick Thistle were looking to secure their place in the promotion play-offs this afternoon as Raith Rovers visited Firhill. The Jags knew a win would confirm a top four finish while a draw would all but do so due to Thistle’s superior goal difference when compared to Raith’s.
Two changes were made to the side which started the 1-0 win over Queen of the South eight days prior with Tunji Akinola and Alex Jakubiak returning to the starting line-up in place of Kyle Turner and Cammy Smith. Thistle were able to name a full complement of nine substitutes with Kyle McAllister back from injury to take his place on the bench.
The first real chance of the game came after seven minutes as Sam Stanton worked the ball out the Ben Williamson on the left side of the Raith attack. The number 20 advanced towards the Thistle box before unleashing a shot which flew narrowly wide of the post, moving the side-netting as it did.
Two minutes later it was the Raith side-netting taking a beating as a Ciaran McKenna cross wasn’t properly cleared by the visitors. Sam Stanton seemed favourite to get a touch on the cross but he let it run through to Alex Jakubiak whose snapshot was only a foot or so wide of the near post.
The game then went through a bit of a lull in terms of goalmouth action with chances few and far between for both sides. Eventually the hosts carved out another opportunity with Alex Jakubiak centre to things again. The Englishman manoeuvred past Frankie Musonda to get to the by-line before firing a low cross into the danger area. The delivery took a deflection and looped up into the six-yard box where Brian Graham and Stephen Hendrie attacked it but neither man could force it over the line as Jamie MacDonald gathered the ball.
MacDonald was required again in the 41st minute as Brian Graham almost found the opener. It came from a Stephen Hendrie free-kick on the Thistle left which was swung in beautifully for the striker to attack. Graham rose well between two markers and tried to power a header into the bottom corner, however, he was denied by the Raith ‘keeper who batted the ball away from danger.
As the second half began, Raith were pushing more men forward as they looked for a goal and Jamie Sneddon had to be on his toes to deny them one six minutes after the restart. Rovers right-back Reghan Tumilty came forward from defence and took the opportunity to rifle a shot goalwards. His effort was powerful and full of movement but Sneddon got a hand to it to touch it over the bar.
The Thistle goal was under threat again in the 70th minute as a deflection almost caused havoc for the home side. Sam Stanton took on the shot from 20 yards and it took a nick off a Jags defender before bouncing towards Dario Zanatta. The number 11 tried to control the ball but saw it squeeze under his boot and into the goalkeeper’s arms.
Thistle finally produced a good second half chance in the 81st minute as Juan Alegria almost netted his first goal in Jags colours. Brian Graham hooked the ball over the Raith defence for the Colombian to run onto but after holding off Musonda, Alegria volleyed his shot wide of the far post.
That miss came back to haunt Thistle as Raith found the breakthrough in the 90th minute to take all three points. From a throw-in in front of the travelling support in the Colin Weir Stand, Rovers were able to drill a low ball into the box where Matej Poplatnik was waiting. Unmarked, the Slovenian had the simple job of redirecting the ball into the back of the net to seal a win which keeps the race for fourth alive.
The away side were able to see out the remaining minutes to move within three points of their opponents with two games left to play. Up next for the Jags is a home game against Dunfermline. That one is a 3pm kick-off at Firhill on Saturday, 23rd April.
The management team’s written previews and reactions are presented by The Jags Trust. You can keep up to date with the latest from The Jags Trust by visiting their website, www.jagstrust.com.
Raith Rovers gained some ground in the cinch Championship play-off race as they won late at Firhill this afternoon against Partick Thistle. A goal from Matej Poplatnik in the 90th minute settled the game in Glasgow as the Kirkcaldy side pulled to within three points of the Jags with two games to play. Chances came and went for Stephen Hendrie, Brian Graham, Juan Alegria and more but Thistle were unable to take any of them before the away side scored late on to take the points back to Fife. Jags boss Ian McCall spoke to ptfc.co.uk after the final whistle:
“Well, it’s a gutting way to lose a game especially when we felt we should never have lost it. If anyone shaded it then I felt we did but ultimately if you don’t take your chances then you’re in danger of losing like that.
“We felt we had the better of the first half and had two or three decent chances to score which we didn’t take. Things were a lot more even in the second half and both teams were pushing and creating openings without the goalkeepers having too much to do.
“Juan, who I thought did well when he came on, should score the chance he has with about ten minutes to go but then they go up the other end and started putting pressure on us. Their goal is well-worked from their perspective but we should let the ball come in like that so easily. Now, we have to regroup because we’re still in the driving seat.”
McCall made a change at half-time with Robbie Crawford replacing Tunji Akinola and he talked us through that alteration.
“We didn’t feel like we were getting enough out of Ross Docherty and Stuart Bannigan with Mayo in behind them. Tunji played pretty well in the first half but was just the victim of us wanting to change the approach a little bit.
“Moving things about like we did probably lead to things being a bit more open but we wanted to try to get a bit more control of the midfield though it didn’t really pan out like that.”
The Maryhill men now look forward to a home fixture against Dunfermline Athletic and the gaffer is hoping his players don’t dwell on today’s defeat for long.
“As I said, we’re still in the driving seat and it’s still all in our hands. We’ll be back in on Monday and we’ll need the boys to put it behind them. Things didn’t go our way today but we’ve got two more games to go and get this play-off spot so that’s the aim.
“It’ll be a difficult game against a Dunfermline side who will be desperate for the points but we really need to win as well so we have to regroup and get ourselves in the right frame of mind for that match.”
Further reaction from Thistle manager Ian McCall will be available to watch on JagZone tonight – log in to view.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone later tonight.
Article Copyright © 2022. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
Thistle fail to secure their play-off slot as Rovers snatch a win with a goal after 89 minutes.
It now comes down to the final two games of the season. Thistle hold a three point advantage over Raith Rovers and play Dunfermline (home) and Ayr (away). Rovers meantime play Hamilton (away) and Kilmarnock (home)
A challenge comes in on Graham just as he is about to shoot inside the box.
The ball sits up nicely for Holt at the edge of the box but he can't keep his shot down and the ball clears the crossbar.
Rovers look to have snatched all three points. The ball is crossed from the left and Poplatnik smashes home.
Holt needs to make an important block to keep out a Spencer shot.
That might have been the moment for Thistle. Graham's pass puts Alegria clear but he fires across MacDonald and wide of the post.
It's a good corner from Hendrie but MacDonald shows safe hands to grab hold of the ball inside his own 6 yard box.
Hendrie slips allowing Tumilty a glimpse at goal but he slices his shot over the bar.
Tiffoney tries to provide that spark with a dip of the shoulders but his shot is blocked by Benedictus.
As we approach the last 15 minutes of the game Thistle are badly in need of a spark from somewhere.
A low Stanton shot nearly gets the touch from Zanatta that would produce a goal.
Docherty gets the ball round the wall but there isn't enough pace in his shot to properly trouble MacDonald who makes a routine save.
McKenna is fouled about 25 yards from goal when he collects the ball after Hendrie's corner is cleared.
What a save that is from Jamie Sneddon who gets his fingertips to a Tumilty rocket.
Thistle are under a bit of pressure early in the second half but Williamson drags a shot well wide of goal.
Half-time change for Thistle. Mayo slotting back into the centre of the Thistle defence.
It's goalless at the break. Thistle have had the better of an untidy scrappy match but haven't pressed MacDonald in the Raith goal into any serious action.
Into first half injury time.
It's a good corner from Hendrie but it is well defended by Raith. Looks as if we'll be going in level at half-time.
A Hendrie free kick finds the head of Graham but his header doesn't have enough power or direction to find the net and MacDonald is able to push it away from goal.
Raith look for a penalty as Ross goes to ground inside the Thistle box but referee Munro is unmoved by the Raith appeals.
Jakubiak does really well down the right hand side but Graham isn't able to bundle his cross over the line and MacDonald is able to smother the ball almost on his goal line.
McKenna has a chance to shoot from the edge of the box. A second or two hesitation though proves to be his downfall and although he does manage a shot it is an easy save for MacDonald.
Jakubiak has his legs taken from under him and Thistle have a free kick near the left hand corner of the Raith box.
Ross' corner is only partially cleared and Williamson manages a shot from the edge of the Thistle box that isn't too far off target.
Thistle try to break when Ross' corner is cleared and Tiffoney picks the ball up on the right hand side. His pass to Hendrie though goes behind his team mate and the move breaks down.
Hendrie's corner is headed clear by McKay. Tiffoney picks up the ball a yard or so outside the box and he sees his powerfully hit shot blocked by a defender.
Sneddon is quickly off his line to collect a low driven cross from Tumilty.
Jakubiak side steps the challenge of Musonda but gets his cross all wrong.
Thistle are a whisker away from taking the lead. McKenna's cross from the right finds Jakubiak and his instinctive first time effort flies just wide of goal.
Stanton pushes the ball to Williamson to his left and his shot ruffles the side netting of the Thistle goal.
Promising from Thistle as Tiffoney is on the end of a long ball forward. He can't quite pick out Jakubiak with his cross though.
Raith Rovers kick the game off. Thistle will be shooting towards The John Lambie Stand in the first half.
The arithmetic for Thistle this afternoon is simple. A win over 5th placed Raith Rovers will confirm our position in the Premiership Play-Offs.
Achieving that win though is likely to be anything other than simple with Rovers viewing today's game as there last chance to secure that 4th place finish for themselves.
Ian McCall's starting eleven shows two changes to the side that started against Queen of the South with those two changes also seeing a slight shift in formation.
In come Alex Jakubiak and Tunji Akinola with Kyle Turner and Cammy Smith dropping to a full nine man substitute bench.