Sunday 23rd November, 2014 at 6:59pm
Aside from an excellent 3-1 win in the second half of last season Thistle’s record against Aberdeen had been poor and that trend continued as a first half penalty was enough to give Aberdeen all three points in a fairly drab encounter.
There was a change in the Thistle goal for this match with Scott Fox a late goal off because of illness which meant a start for Paul Gallacher. Elsewhere the suspended Jordan McMillan was replaced by Jake Carroll, Kris Doolan got the nod to start ahead of Ryan Stevenson and a free from suspension Stuart Bannigan replaced the injured Sean Welsh.
It was the visitors from the North East that started the game the better and on two occasions inside the first 10 minutes Thistle were fortunate to scramble the ball clear from deep inside their own penalty box.
Thistle though missed a glorious chance to take a 10th minute lead. Stephen O’Donnell lofted a left footed ball into the Aberdeen box. Kris Doolan was able to nod the ball back into the path of James Craigen who really should have done better than drag his shot from 10 yards wide of goal.
That gilt edged opportunity aside it was Aberdeen that did the bulk of the pressing and the returning Gallacher had to make a good stop low to his left to keep out an Adam Rooney shot in the 28th minute.
The Thistle keeper was in action again a couple of minutes later when he palmed away a free kick from McGinn.
This was a busy period for the Thistle goalkeeper who, just after McGinn’s effort from the free kick, was required to tip the ball round the post for a corner though most people were anticipating a raised flag for offside.
That proved to be a controversial call as it was from the corner that followed that Aberdeen were awarded the penalty that would ultimately determine the outcome of the game; the ball striking the hand of Abdul Osman.
Paul Gallacher has a good record of saving penalties but on this occasion, and despite diving the right way, he was beaten by Adam Rooney’s effort.
Aberdeen came close to a second goal just three minutes after taking the lead with Ryan Jack stinging the hands of Gallacher before the last event of note of the opening 45 minutes saw Thistle have their own appeal for a penalty for handball turned down.
With Aberdeen happy to protect the lead they had rather than press for a second goal the second half was a poor affair despite no shortage of endeavour from the home side. It did take, however, a sharp save from Gallacher in the 73rd minute to prevent Rooney finding the net with a header and scoring the goal that would have all but secured the points for Aberdeen.
As it was it was Thistle that had the bulk of the pressure in the closing 15 minutes or so but sadly never the cutting edge to go with the pressure. Substitute Kallum Higginbotham saw a curling effort from the edge of the box clear the Aberdeen bar with the best chance of a Thistle equaliser coming with 10 minutes of the 90 remaining.
Ryan Stevenson was able to flight a ball into the Aberdeen box where it picked out the run and head of Stuart Bannigan who could only head wide of goal.
Abdul Osman too had an opportunity late on with his head but his header from a Stephen O’Donnell cross went over the bar as it became increasingly clear that Thistle’s efforts to wrestle a point from the game were going to be in vain.
