Saturday 14th September, 2013 at 2:11pm
This proved to be a disappointing afternoon for Thistle are they were out played by an Aberdeen side that thoroughly deserved their 3-0 victory with Thistle contributing to their own downfall with some basic errors.
After a break of a fortnight Alan Archibald made two changes to his side that had come from behind to defeat St Mirren. An injured hamstring prevented Conrad Balatoni from taking up a position in the centre of the Thistle defence which meant a league debut for Gabriel Piccolo. The other change saw Club captain Sean Welsh return from injury with Isaac Osbourne dropping to the bench to accommodate Welsh’s return.
The visitors were quickly in control of this game with Peter Pawlett driving at the heart of the Thistle defence as early as the second minute with Thistle grateful that Aaron Muirhead was on hand to snuff out the early danger.
Goalkeeper Scott Fox was comfortably Thistle’s best performer on the day and he made the first of a string of impressive saves in the 12th minute when he turned a Jonny Hayes shot round the post for a corner. It was from Hayes’ corner that followed, however, that Aberdeen took the lead. The ball was flicked on and Calvin Zola was in the right spot at the right time to knock the ball home.
Kallum Higginbotham scooped a shot from the edge of the box into the waiting arms of Aberdeen keeper Jamie Langfield as Thistle tried to find an immediate response to the loss of the opening goal but in the 20th minute Aberdeen were able to extend their lead.
This was a dreadfully poor goal from a Thistle perspective to lose. Gabriel Piccolo was caught out down by the Thistle bye line and Zola was able to square the ball back to Peter Pawlett who drilled the ball low into the net despite the best attempts of two Thistle defenders on the line to clear the ball.
A third goal at this stage would all but killed Thistle off and with the game still in its’ first quarter Aberdeen had a further chance to inflict more misery on Thistle but Jonny Hayes, with space inside the Thistle box, was able to get enough power into his shot allowing Scott Fox to save.
It was only with half-time approaching that Thistle were able to pose any serious threat to the Aberdeen goal. Langfield was well positioned to save from Steven Lawless with the Aberdeen keeper also producing a fine stop to keep out a deflected effort from Aaron Taylor-Sinclair. Sean Welsh too saw an effort deflected wide of goal as Thistle looked to reduce the leeway to a single goal before the half-time whistle.
Aberdeen though were close to a third goal before the break. The Thistle defence was sliced open with alarming ease and it took an excellent stop from Scott Fox to prevent Calvin Zola netting his second goal of the afternoon.
The second half brought little improvement for Thistle. Indeed within seconds of the restart Aberdeen were close to scoring a third goal, Jonny Hayes being just unable to connect with a cross from the Aberdeen left.
A third Aberdeen goal nearly arrived in the 53rd minute and would have done had Scott Fox not made another fantastic save; this time keeping out a Cammy Smith header from point blank range.
Thistle introduced all three substitutes in an attempt to claw themselves back into the game and Ross Forbes wasn’t too far away from a free kick from 30 yards out that only just cleared the Aberdeen bar in the 68th minute.
A minute later, however, any doubt over the destination of the points was well and truly removed when Josh Magennis was able to collect a pass, get in behind the Thistle defence and shoot past Scott Fox and into the back of the net.
There was no lack of effort from Thistle and they were close to a consolation goal on two occasions in the time that remained. Kallum Higginbotham smacked a shot off the base of the Aberdeen post in the 80th minute before being involved in a neat interchange with Ross Forbes who dragged his shot narrowly wide of goal.
This though was the proverbial bad day at the office for Thistle who were defeated by an impressive and well organised Aberdeen side.
