Sat 4 May, 2013
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1 
Bet Butler Stadium, Dumbarton
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1
Sat 4 May, 2013. Kick Off: - 15:00
Bet Butler Stadium, Dumbarton
Tomorrow afternoon’s fixture away to Dumbarton marks the end of season 2012-2013; a season that will go down as one of the most memorable in the Club’s long history.
Just a few weeks ago tomorrow’s fixture looked like being a vital one for both clubs; albeit a different ends of the table. However, Dumbarton retained their First Division status for next season with a 3-2 win at Cowdenbeath last weekend. We meantime, of course, clinched the First Division title just under a fortnight ago at Falkirk and go into the final game of the season ten points clear at the top of the table.
If you think that tomorrow’s game will amount to nothing more than a 90 minute stroll for both teams then you would be very much mistaken. [link:HOME] caught up with manager Alan Archibald after the final training session of the season and made it plain that he wants to finish the season on a positive note.
“If nothing else we want to keep the unbeaten run going and get ourselves up to the 80 point mark for the season. That’s 17 league games unbeaten now and that’s a great record to have. I was delighted that the players were able to come from 3-1 down last week and maintain the unbeaten record.”
As previously mentioned we go into tomorrow’s match 10 points clear at the top of the table and earlier in the week no fewer than five players, six if you include Jordan McMillan, were included in the PFA Scotland First Division Team of the Year. It’s impossible, therefore, not to view Thistle as the best team in the league. Said Alan;
“I think that we have over the course of the season proven to be the best team in the league and it’s great to see so many selected in the Team of the Year; someone said to me that with Jordan we had five and a half players in the team! Seriously though, it is great that the players of other teams think highly of our players.”
Players is something though that the manager is more than a little short of going into tomorrow’s game.
“We’ve been lucky this season with injuries and suspensions and I suppose if we were to be hit with injuries, we had virtually a whole midfield wiped out with injury last weekend, then this is as good a time as any but it does give us problems for tomorrow.”
Alan went on to provide a little more detail.
“Scott Fox is out. The Thistle fans might have noticed that he was struggling a bit last week against Dunfermline. Indeed he has been struggling for the last four weeks or so. His injury gives Glenn Daniels the chance to come in and I’ll need to double check with Ian Maxwell that Ryan Scully is allowed to sit on the bench for us.”
“Stephen O’Donnell picked up an ankle injury in training and he’ll also miss out tomorrow and joins Hugh Murray, Paul Paton and Sean Welsh on the injury list. James Craigen too misses out again but the good news is that his injury isn’t a serious as we feared it might be and he should be back in time for pre-season training.”
Alan continued;
“I’ve told Steven Craig that he won’t be part of our plans for next season and he’ll likely not be involved tomorrow. I’ve also told Andy Dowie that he’ll not be with us next season. It’s horrible having to tell players this especially when they’ve played a big part in getting us promoted us in the first place and it does take the gloss off the celebrations. If we had stayed in the First Division then I would definitely have kept Andy Dowie but going up a league I just feel that we need to strengthen. Andy’s contribution wasn’t just limited to his goal at Falkirk. His performance against Morton alone helped us win promotion.”
There’s also a Firhill departure for Bradley Halsman.
“Bradley’s really unlucky. He’s just too old to be part of our under 20 side next season and in terms of his own development we can’t keep him at the club just to be standing around.”
On a more positive note some of the younger players are added to the squad for tomorrow’s game.
“Liam Lindsay, Jordon Leyden and David Wilson are all added to the squad and we of course welcome Aaron Muirhead back after his period of suspension.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 2 0 8 4
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Chris Erskine 16
Kris Doolan 15
Steven Craig 14
Steven Lawless 14
Conrad Balatoni 6
Stuart Bannigan 4
Ross Forbes 4
Aaron Muirhead 4
Christie Elliott 3
James Craigen 2
Stephen O’Donnell 2
Aaron Sinclair 2
Sean Welsh 2
Andy Dowie 1
Jordan McMillan 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 27th 2013
Partick Thistle 3, Dunfermline Athletic 3
Dumbarton Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 0 2 11 8
Scorers season 2012-2013
Jim Lister 15
Bryan Prunty 13
Scott Agnew 11
Mark Gilhaney 6
Steven McDougall 5
Garry Fleming 3
Chris Turner 3
Andrew Graham 2
Alan Lithgow 2
Paul McGinn 2
Own Goals 2
Andy Graham 1
Marc McCusker 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 27th 2013
Cowdenbeath 2, Dumbarton 3
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday March 9th 2013
Partick Thistle 3, Dumbarton 0
Teams
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Sinclair, Forbes (Elliott), Muirhead, Balatoni, Welsh, Bannigan (McGuigan), Craig (Doolan), Lawless, Craigen.
Dumbarton: Grindlay, McGinn, Creaney (Lister), Graham, Lithgow, Tuirner, Gilhaney, Smith, Fleming (McCusker), Winters (Agnew), McDougall.
Scorers
Thistle: Lawless (10, 74), Doolan (81)
Crowd: 2,715
Match Highlights
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday May 4th 2013
Dumbarton v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
ALL TICKET FIXTURE
Adults £15
Concessions £8
Travel
Directions
Supporters Bus Information
Match Officials
Referee: John Beaton
Assistant Referees: Stuart Macaulay and David Lowe
Other First Division Fixtures
Dunfermline Athletic v Airdrie United
Falkirk v Morton
Hamilton Accies v Cowdenbeath
Livingston v Raith Rovers
An otherwise memorable season drew to a low key finish as Dumbarton and Thistle played out a goalless draw in difficult windy conditions at Dumbarton.
Alan Archibald’s final team selection of the season was hampered by the non-availability of a number of players but on the plus side he was able to welcome Aaron Muirhead back following his period of suspension. There were debuts for on loan goalkeeper Glenn Daniels and young centre Liam Lindsay.
With the Thistle fans in excellent spirits there was a real party atmosphere off the pitch but events on the park didn’t match the off field festivities. Although Thistle were probably marginally the better of the two sides in the opening 45 minutes they never truly tested Ewings in the Dumbarton goal.
The Dumbarton keeper made comfortable, routine saves from Christie Elliott and Ross Forbes while Elliott saw his shot from the edge of the Dumbarton penalty box blocked by a defender.
The closest that Thistle came to a goal in the first half was a Jordan McMillan volley following a Stuart Bannigan cross that was blocked for a corner. Kris Doolan too came close but couldn’t get enough of a touch to a cross from the left to divert the ball into the net.
There wasn’t a lot of action at the other end either although it was Dumbarton that were the closest to scoring a first half goal. Conrad Balatoni was well placed to clear a net bound Scott Agnew effort off the line in the 28th minute.
If anything the second half was an even more low key affair than the first half had been. As the afternoon wore on the already stiff wind got stronger and stronger. With Thistle playing directly into the wind there were times where it was a struggle to clear the ball such was the strength of the wind. At one stage Dumbarton won a series of corners in quick succession as Thistle simply couldn’t clear the ball from their own penalty area.
As they had been in the first half it was Dumbarton that came the closest to breaking the deadlock. Scott Agnew, who had had a shot cleared off the line in the first half, was desperately unlucky to see his shot beat Daniels but hit the inside of the post and bounce clear.
Thistle’s best chance of a winning goal fell to Stuart Bannigan who really should have scored after being set up by substitute Chris Erskine. Aaron Sinclair was close as well with a shot from the edge of the box that was deflected just wide of goal.
Although Thistle were unable to end the season with a win they did extend their unbeaten run in the league to an 18th game and extended their winning margin at the top of the First Division to eleven points. Season 2012-2013 will certainly go down as one of the more memorable seasons in Thistle’s long history.
Season 2012-2013 was unquestionably a memorable one for the Club. The season’s finale, a 0-0 draw at Dumbarton, was less memorable. To be fair to both sets of players, however, the strong wind was always going to make things very difficult.
Said manager Alan Archibald when speaking to [link:HOME] after the game;
“It was horrendous. I’m not sure how bad it was in the stand but even when I went out for the warm up I hadn’t realised just how bad it was. Everyone says that wind is one thing that games should be called off for; it ruins football. It ruins it as a spectacle. It was like being back at Arbroath at times with their wind machine! You wouldn’t expect to get that at the start of May and it ruined the game which was a bit flat anyway with it being an end of season affair.”
So was 0-0 the right score at the end?
“It probably was. They had a couple of half chances and they had one cleared off the line as well when Conrad did well. We had a couple of good chances to score as well so I think 0-0 was a fair result.”
The manager was happy with the contribution made by young defender Liam Lindsay who played the full 90 minutes in his Thistle debut.
“He did well. They are awkward customers and Dumbarton caused us a lot of problems the last time we played them away from home. One of the front two from that game was playing today and Liam was up against a couple of experienced strikers. I thought that he did well and settled down after the first ten minutes. He deserved his chance today to go and play. He’s progressed really well through the season and I’ve played with him in a couple of reserve games as well. Even when he came into the reserves at the end of last season he slotted in well and grew in confidence and hopefully playing today will help him next season as well.”
Alan continued;
“It was good too to give Jordan Leyden his chance in the second half and it was just unfortunate that we couldn’t bring David Wilson on as well. We want to keep Ross Forbes and Stuart Bannigan on in the midfield and I brought on Chris Erskine on just to try and nick the win. David though will get his chance if he keeps his head down and keeps working hard.”
There was a warm reception for Chris from the Thistle fans in his final appearance for the Club and there was praise too from his manager.
“Apart from winning us games with some sublime bits of skill Chris’ work rate, which often goes unnoticed, has been brilliant.”
Replacing him will be no easy task. Said Alan;
“What it does do is give someone the chance from our own team to step up to the mark or we will need to go and get someone from elsewhere to come in and do that for us.”
So what are Alan’s plans now?
“I’m going to go away with the players for one or two days; that’s enough. I’ll be on the plane with them and that will be as much as I will see of them. I’ll have a family holiday as well but the hard work starts now. In truth the hard work started two weeks ago when we won promotion. That’s when it all kicked off and we started doing stuff. You are scared to plan too far in advance in case you don’t win the league so when we did clinch the title that gave us the chance to get pre-season plans in place.”
Without mentioning names does Alan have a few players in mind to bring to the Club over the summer?
“We’ve got one or two in mind. It’s quite hard at the moment; the SPL for example hasn’t finished yet and people are waiting to see what is going to happen. It’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment to be honest. We’re Glasgow based and with the fan base that we have hopefully Partick Thistle is a more attractive club for people. Hopefully we will be able to bring in a better class of player to help those that we’ve already got and help us to progress even further.”
