Tuesday 8th December, 2015 at 10:37am
Scott MacKenzie’s young Development League side returned to action on Tuesday night to face Dundee United in the first of a double header between the clubs, the second of which comes when the first teams face off at Tannadice on Saturday.
MacKenzie made two changes to the side which had went down tamely to Motherwell with Ryan Edwards and Jordan Leyden both dropping out of the squad entirely, with Mark Lamont, impressive as a subssitute last week, and David Wilson both coming into the starting line up.
Games against Dundee United have been very entertaining in the Development League and this one appeared to be no different. Thistle went on the offensive straight from kick off but when McDaid was unable to slip the ball to Wilson, United broke through the devastating pace of Justin Johnson.
It was from one of his rampaging runs that United had their first chance, Waters more than equal to Coote’s low free kick. Both sides were playing a patient passing game with excellent moves being conjured up, the final ball in a dangerous area being lacking for the teams. Wilson managed to play an excellent Crossfield ball to McDaid who set up Docherty who tried to find Nisbet with the cross, unfortunately the attacker was muscled off the ball by attackers.
With almost 30 minutes on the clock Dundee United took the lead and Thistle will be disappointed about the manner of it. Thistle had a corner, which Penrice delivered, that was cleared by the United defence. As the away team broke, McDaid looked to have halted play with a foul, only for the referee to signal advantage. Tumility found Johnson unmarked and he dinked the ball cleverly over the stranded Thistle goalkeeper to open the scoring.
Thistle keptplugging away at attempting to conjure an equaliser, but in terms of shots on target they only had a single effort from Dominic Docherty to register during the first half. McDaid almost found Nisbet with an excellent cross, but terrific defending from Dundee United saw Thistle have to settle for a corner.
Just before half time Thistle could have trailed by two when dallying on the ball presented United with a chance inside the penalty area. Marc Waters had to look sharp to produce an excellent save from a narrow angle.
Thistle started the second half strongly and found themselves level in the opening 15 minutes. The ball fell fortiously to McDaid but is finish from the edge of the box was excellent as the ball sailed past Zwick.
Thistle were having much of the upper hand at this stage but, as it did all game, the final ball was proving difficult for the Young Jags to master. On several occasions, Penrice delivered an excellent ball into the penalty area but there was never a Thistle man ready to bundle the ball into the net.
With just under 20 minutes to go United re-took the lead. Some neat one touch play resulted in Graham Taylor having a sight of goal inside the penalty area and he finished confidently into the corner of the net, beyond the despairing Waters.
Thistle were bursting forward at every opportunity to grab an equaliser but apart from a Kevin Nisbet free kick, Luis Zwick wasn’t really tested in the closing stages as the game fizzled out for a Dundee United victory.
