Partick Thistle FC logo
Partick Thistle FC
Partick Thistle FC

Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1
Wed 27 March, 2013. Kick Off: - 19:45
Central Park, Cowdenbeath.

Cowdenbeath
1
Colin Stewart
2
Dean Brett
3
Kenny Adamson
4
Sean McAllister
5
John Armstrong
6
Jason Naismith (Thomas O'Brien (16), 39 mins)
7
Jamie Stevenson
8
Lewis Milne (Mark Ramsay (14), 46 mins)
9
Craig Moore
10
Greig Stewart (Lewis Coult (12), 67 mins)
11
Marc McKenzie
 
Subs
12
Lewis Coult
14
Mark Ramsay
15
Kyle Miller
16
Thomas O'Brien
18
Lee Wilson
Partick Thistle FC
Partick Thistle
1
Scott Fox
2
Stephen O'Donnell
3
Aaron Sinclair
4
Paul Paton (Stuart Bannigan (15), 46 mins)
5
Aaron Muirhead
6
Conrad Balatoni
7
Sean Welsh
8
James Craigen
9
Kris Doolan (Mark McGuigan (17), 85 mins)
10
Steve Lawless (Christie Elliott (16), 81 mins)
11
Chris Erskine
 
Subs
12
Glenn Daniels
14
Ross Forbes
15
Stuart Bannigan
16
Christie Elliott
17
Mark McGuigan
 
Subs
12
Lewis Coult
14
Mark Ramsay
15
Kyle Miller
16
Thomas O'Brien
18
Lee Wilson
 
Subs
12
Glenn Daniels
14
Ross Forbes
15
Stuart Bannigan
16
Christie Elliott
17
Mark McGuigan
Match Preview

Cowdenbeath v Partick Thistle – 27th March 2013

MATCH PASSES 2:30pm PITCH INSPECTION. GAME ON.
Although a 2:30pm pitch inspection places tonight’s fixture with Cowdenbeath in doubt ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Alan Archibald a short time ago and he was able to provide us with the latest team news ahead of our trip to Fife; the first of three that we hope to make in the next week.

“Steven Craig is struggling and Hugh Murray is still out with his foot injury. I think it will probably be a couple of weeks before he is available again. I’m also struggling myself although I would only have been on the bench in any case. I jarred my knee during the reserve game on Monday and had to come off early.”
Alan continued;
“On the plus side if Steven Craig doesn’t make it then both Kris Doolan and Christie Elliott have been looking really sharp in recent games. We also have Stuart Bannigan back. He’s fine fitness wise but he played 70 minutes for the Scotland under 21 side on Monday night and we’ll need to take that into consideration.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W            D             L              F              A
5              0              0              16           1
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Steven Craig 14
Chris Erskine 14
Steven Lawless 13
Kris Doolan 10
Conrad Balatoni 5
Stuart Bannigan 4
Ross Forbes 4
Aaron Muirhead 4
Christie Elliott 2
Aaron Sinclair 2
Sean Welsh 2
James Craigen 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday March 23rd 2013
Partick Thistle 6, Livingston 1
Cowdenbeath Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W            D             L              F              A
1              3              1              9              10
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Jamie Stevenson 10
Lewis Coult 8
Marc McKenzie 7
Greg Stewart 7
Kane Hemmings 4
Kyle Miller 4
Craig Moore 4
John Armstrong 3
Lewis Milne 3
Scott Linton 2
Mark Ramsay 2
Kenneth Adamson 1
Dean Brett 1
Liam Caddis 1
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday January 26th 2013
Partick Thistle 2, Cowdenbeath 1
Teams
Thistle: Fox, Welsh, Sinclair, Paton, Balatoni, Archibald, Craigen (Elliott), Bannigan, Craig (Doolan), Forbes (Muirhead), Erskine.
Cowdenbeath: Flynn, Brett, Adamson, O’Brien (Miller), Armstrong. Mbu, Stevenson, Caddis, Coult (McKenzie), Hemmings, Linton.
Scorers
Thistle: Craig (25), Balatoni (44)
Cowdenbeath: Hemmings (4)
Crowd: 2,543
Match Highlights

Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Wednesday March 27th 2013
Cowdenbeath v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 7:45pm
Prices
Adults £12
Child/OAP £6
Family Ticket (one adult and one child under 12) £14
There is no student concession
Please note that the terracing will not be open this evening.
Any fans requiring wheelchair access will require to access the ground via the High Street end turnstiles and be accommodated in the new stand where the home fans will be accommodated.
Travel
Supporters Bus Information
Central Park Information
Match Officials
Referee: Craig Charleston
Assistant Referees: Stuart Hodge and Gavin Thomson
Other First Division Fixtures
Dumbarton v Raith Rovers
Dunfermline Athletic v Falkirk

Match Report

Cowdenbeath v Partick Thistle – 27th March 2013

Thistle relinquished their position at the top of the First Division on December 29th. At least a game behind Morton since that date they finally climbed back to the top of the division with this thoroughly merited 3-0 win over Cowdenbeath; and they still have the benefit of having played a game fewer.
Trailing 2-1 with just 20 minutes remaining there was a distinct sense of Thistle having used their ‘get out of jail free’ card when fog forced an abandonment of one of the many previous attempts to stage, and complete, this fixture. This game too only went ahead after a fantastic effort was made, not just once but twice, to clear the Central Park pitch of snow. The band of Cowdenbeath volunteers may wish now that they hadn’t bothered as Thistle made the most of their fog based reprieve to claim a victory as comfortable as the final score suggests.
Alan Archibald made just one change to his starting line-up against Livingston. Steven Craig, scorer of the second goal in the 6-1 win in that game, missed out because of injury and his place went to Kris Doolan, whose tally of Thistle goals stood at 49 prior to kick-off.
Thistle didn’t start well the night that the fog brought a premature end to proceedings and they were determined not to make the same mistake in this game and hand the initiative to a home side that are also desperate for points.
A positive and purposeful looking Thistle side quickly took charge of the game although in the game’s first quarter that wasn’t translated into goalscoring opportunities. A half chance fell the way of James Craigen but he was unable to hit target and Chris Erskine couldn’t direct his header towards goal when presented with an excellent chance to do so.
Thistle though did open the scoring in the 25th minute. There was a hint of good fortune surrounding the goal but it owed as much, if not more, to the perseverance of Kris Doolan as it did an error from Cowdenbeath keeper Colin Stewart. Kris pressurised Stewart, who was attempting to clear a pass back from a team mate, into making the error that left Stephen O’Donnell with the simplest of tasks of rolling the ball into an unguarded net.
After Cowdenbeath had managed to exert a degree of pressure on the Thistle goal with a series of corners in quick succession; Thistle doubled their advantage on the half hour mark. A James Craigen corner from the right was flicked on and Kris Doolan was perfectly placed to guide the ball into the net and score his 50th goal of his Partick Thistle career.
He nearly grabbed another before half-time as well but this time no Thistle player was able to profit from more uncertain goalkeeping from Colin Stewart.
Still a two goal lead represented a good 45 minutes’ work though no one in the Thistle camp was relaxing thinking that it was game over at the interval.
Cowdenbeath, as expected, tried to force themselves back into the game at the start of the second half but they were unable to make any headway against a once again resolute Thistle defence.
A third Thistle goal would surely have sealed the points and in the 64th minute James Craigen very nearly provided that goal. Craigen cut in towards goal from the left corner of the Cowdenbeath penalty box and his shot his shot was only just wide of Stewart’s left hand post.
Thistle were looking increasingly likely to score again and Kris Doolan may well have claimed his second of the night only for O’Brien to tug him back when clear on goal. The red card that followed for the Cowdenbeath defender was inevitable and Cowdenbeath only escaped further punishment when Stewart produced a fine save to keep out Aaron Sinclair’s free kick that followed.
A third goal though did arrive with 11 minutes of the game remaining. Chris Erskine threaded the ball through to Steven Lawless. Lawless himself was denied a goal by a fine save from Stewart but the ball spun to Kris Doolan who duly nodded the ball home to complete the scoring for the evening and round of an excellent night’s work for Thistle.

Match Reaction

Cowdenbeath v Partick Thistle – 27th March 2013

Speaking to [link:HOME] after last night’s 3-0 win over Cowdenbeath manager Alan Archibald summed up his side’s performance fairly succinctly.
“It was a great away performance” said Alan before adding;
“it was Probably better, if I’m being honest, than our win at Dunfermline. Although we won that game 4-0 I found tonight’s win more satisfying. The players’ attitude and work rate was outstanding.”
Alan continued;
“We spoke about the last game against Cowdenbeath and how for the first 6 minutes of that game we couldn’t get out of our own half. It was totally different tonight; we made sure that we played the game in their half. We did all the right things and we made all the right decisions. The pressing and work rate all over the pitch was excellent. It was a total team performance and I was proud of the players.”
The manager was again delighted to see the goals shared around the team.
“I spoke on Saturday about the importance of different players scoring goals so that we are not always relying on the one player. It takes pressure off if you are scoring goals from all areas of the pitch; that’s a great thing to have.  I was delighted tonight that Kris Doolan managed to get a couple of goals as I think his confidence took a little bit of a hit earlier in the season, but he did well against Airdrie when he started and he’s just been unlucky not to get back in because of the form of Stevie Craig. He took his chance tonight and I thought he was brilliant and with his work rate he deserved his goals.”
One downside to the evening was an injury picked up by Paul Paton; an injury that necessitated in him being substituted at the break. Alan was able to give us an update on that.
“He took a challenge in the first half and that’s causing a bit of concern; it’s really the only downer of the whole night. He’s taken a knock on his knee and he’ll see someone tomorrow so we can get that assessed as quickly as possible. The way Paul is he played on. I actually thought at the time that it was the ankle injured a couple of weeks ago but the worrying thing is that it’s his knee but we’ll know more in the morning.”
There was praise from the manager for the player that slotted into the team to replace his injured captain.
“Stuart Bannigan was the ideal replacement for Paul. I was worried because he had played 70 minutes on Monday for Scotland but he came on and I thought he was brilliant as well.”
It’s back to Cowdenbeath on Saturday and the manager is expecting a bit of a Cowdenbeath backlash in that fixture.
“I’m glad that we will be going into that game with a win under our belts. Cowdenbeath will come out all guns blazing on Saturday I’m sure as they won’t be happy with their performance tonight.”
Thistle will go into Saturday’s game proudly back atop the First Division league table.
“It’s a nice feeling to back top of the league, I’m not sure how long it’s been since we were top but it’s been a long time. People kept saying that it was better to have the points on the board than to have games in hand and it did take us a long time to get back to the top. Getting to the top was the big incentive that we had before tonight’s game. We spoke about that before the game and how we had the chance to go top of the league and that it didn’t matter how we played, just that we got to the top of the league.”
To finish off we asked the manager if there is a different type of pressure being top of the league again?
“The pressure is on both teams now to keep winning games. In that respect it doesn’t really matter if you are first or second. We are obviously glad to be top; it’s much better to be top than it is second , and we look forward to the challenge ahead.”

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