Sat 20 October, 2012
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1 
Firhill Stadium, GlasgowChris Erskine (4, 45), Aaron Muirhead (11 pen)
Steve Lawless (30), Sean Welsh (42)
Kris Doolan (57)
Ross Forbes (80).
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1
Sat 20 October, 2012. Kick Off: - 15:00
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow
After three successive away games, Thistle make a welcome return to Firhill tomorrow afternoon with the visit of Airdrie United.
Thistle manager Jackie McNamara was certainly looking forward to getting back to familiar surrounds when he spoke with ptfc.co.uk
“It will be nice to get back to Firhill tomorrow. It’s a game that we are naturally looking to win; we should be looking to win all our home games and turn Firhill into something of a fortress. So far this season that is something, with the help of the fans backing, that we have managed to do. Airdrie United will be looking to bounce back from a bad defeat against Hamilton in their last match and they will be tough opposition tomorrow. We are, however, after a series of away games on tight, narrow pitches; looking forward to get back playing at Firhill. Hopefully we can make good use of the extra space, express ourselves and create plenty of chances.”
We will go into tomorrow’s game fairly well placed in terms of player availability. We will, however, be without Hugh Murray who was sent off against Morton in our last league game. We will look as if we will be without Alan Archibald as well. At the time of writing he is struggling and he must be rated as a major doubt. He had an injection during the week and there is nothing sinister about his injury. If he doesn’t make it tomorrow we would expect him to be back in the next week or so.”
“We have a relatively strong squad at the moment and that has allowed us to let James Craigen head out on a month’s loan with Forfar Athletic. James has been unfortunate that the form of Steven Lawless and Chris Erskine has kept him out of the side and this loan move will allow him to play more competitive fixtures that he would do playing for the reserves here.”
“Mark McGuigan has benefited from his time on loan with Albion Rovers in the same division. Mark continues to train with us and it looks as if he has gained a great deal of confidence from his time with Albion Rovers. We’re hoping that James will benefit in a similar fashion from his time with Dick Campbell and Forfar.”
“Although both James and Mark are currently out on loan they remain part of my plans here. It’s a long, long season and we’re only in October just 8 league games into the season. Over the course of the season we are going to have utilise our whole squad as best as we can.”
“In addition to having sent out some players on loan we, of course, have a couple of loan players of our own. We’ve only just recently brought Paul Slane in on loan from Celtic and we also have Steven Craig, who of course scored our winner at Cowdenbeath last weekend. Steven is here until the end of December but we don’t know what will happen after that. He’s certainly a player that I would like to keep and we will do all that we can to do that.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 1 1 7 6
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Chris Erskine 6
Steven Lawless 6
Steven Craig 5
Kris Doolan 5
Stuart Bannigan 2
Christie Elliott 1
Aaron Muirhead 1
Aaron Sinclair 1
Sean Welsh 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Ramsdens Cup Semi-Final
Sunday October 14th 2012
Cowdenbeath 0, Partick Thistle 1
Airdrie United Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 1 4 3 13
Scorers Season 2012-2013
John Boyle 7
Alan Cook 2
Jamie Bain 1
Nathan Blockley 1
Paul Di Giacomo 1
Willie McLaren 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday October 6th 2012
Airdrie United 0, Hamilton Accies 4
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 3rd 2010
Airdrie United 2, Partick Thistle 0
Teams
Airdrie United: Robertson, Storey, Lovering, Smyth, Donnelly, McLaughlin, Trouten (Baird), McCann, O’Carroll (Keegan), Gemmill (Watt), Waddell.
Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Boyle, McKeown, Robertson, Maxwell, Erskine (Grehan), Rowson, Buchanan (Burns), Donnelly (Cairney), Corcoran.
Scorers
Airdrie United: Lovering (71), McLaughlin (73)
Crowd: 1,142
Match Highlights
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday October 20th 2012
Partick Thistle v Airdrie United
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults: £17
OAP (65+): £12
16-21: £12
Full Time Education: £12
Programme: £2.50
Match Officials
Referee: Euan Norris
Assistant Referees: Stuart Stevenson and Scott Lambie
Other First Division Fixtures
Cowdenbeath v Raith Rovers
Dumbarton v Falkirk
Dunfermline Athletic v Morton
Hamilton Accies v Livingston
Victory in this one-sided affair saw Thistle finish the first quarter of the league season proudly atop the First Division.
Thistle were well on their way to full points inside the first half’s first ten minutes. The opener arrived in the 3rd minute. Sean Welsh spotted Chris Erskine to his right and when Erskine was left with Kenny Arthur to beat he did so with ease.
Erskine was heavily involved in Thistle’s second goal just eight minutes later. He was nudged in the box and when Euan Norris pointed to the spot Aaron Muirhead was the player to take the spot kick and he sent the ball high into the back of the net.
A third goal nearly swiftly followed. Steven Craig’s knock down was collected by Ross Forbes and cries of ‘goal’ were only stifled by a point blank range save from Kenny Arthur.
With Thistle finding gaps all over the park it was a surprise that it took Thistle until the 30th minute to score a third goal. Steven Lawless and Chris Erskine combined to open up the Airdrie United defence. Erskine’s ball to the back post was cleared but only as far as Steven Lawless who sent a low shot into the net.
Stephen O’Donnell had a shot cleared off the line as Thistle looked for a fourth goal and that fourth goal arrived in the 42nd minute. A sweeping Thistle move ended with Stephen ‘Donnell’s cross from the right being knocked into the net by Sean Welsh.
Amazingly that wasn’t the scoring finished for the first half. With the 45th minute mark approaching Chris Erskine was left clean through on goal and he lifted the ball over a beleaguered Kenny Arthur and into the net.
Thistle made a change at the break replacing Steven Craig, who had been on the wrong end of some hefty challenges during the first 45 minutes, with Kris Doolan and Doolan got in on the act with Thistle’s 6th in the 57th minute. Doolan was able to get on the end of a cross from the right to score his sixth goal of the season.
An angled drive from Steven Lawless went wide of goal as the one-sided affair continued.
Thistle were able to introduce Christie Elliott and Paul Slane into the action in the 65th minute and Elliott was unlucky not to get on the score sheet in his first serious involvement in the action. Kris Doolan was able to push the ball through to him and Elliott’s effort from the right corner of the box was only narrowly off target.
Airdrie United’s day though would only get worse. A dreadful over the top challenge from sub Scott Sally earned him a deserved red card and a seventh Thistle goal followed in the 80th minute.
A Ross Forbes free kick on the right completely deceived Kenny Arthur who allowed Forbes’ effort to beat him at his near post.
As you would imagine it was a very happy and contented Jackie McNamara that [link:HOME] spoke to after yesterday’s emphatic 7-0 hammering of Airdrie United.
“First half I thought that we were excellent. We scored some good goals and we played some good football. I was delighted too with the attitude shown in the second half. When you are so far ahead you do wonder if they will take the foot off the gas but they were still working hard and looking sharp.”
“I felt a wee bit for Jimmy Boyle and a couple of wee things went against him but from our point of view the fact that we were so far ahead allowed me to take a couple of players off for protection as we have a big game at Falkirk coming up next week. I took Chris Erskine and Steven Lawless and brought on Christie Elliott and Paul Slane to try and give them a bit of confidence. Kris Doolan came on as Steven Craig took a bad knock in the first half and we’re hoping that he will be okay for next week’s game.”
“We had a lot of really good performances today and that is reflected in the score line. At times we were unplayable. We try and press and do things quickly and when we do that we are very hard to play against. I know that people say that we play with just one striker, but the way that we play and the way that we move it’s not a 4-5-1 formation it is a 4-3-3.”
“Paul Paton has been excellent all season and Sean Welsh has just come back from injury. Right through the team we have good players and that is giving me a selection problem but it is a good problem to have. We have a good squad at the moment. We had Aaron Sinclair, who was in the First Division team of the year last season, on the bench today and he didn’t get on. It’s important to try and keep them all happy and where possible get them some game time because they are all part of it all. There is a long way to go in the season, that’s just the first quarter finished. All the players are going to be called upon because we are going to encounter things like injuries and suspensions.”
“It’s nice to finish the first quarter at the top of the league. We can’t ask for much better than that. Even the game that we lost at Morton I thought we played well in the match. The boys have a real desire and winning mentality but I’ve emphasised to them that there is still three quarters of the season to go and we need keep focused as we have some really big games coming up. We’ve Falkirk away and Dunfermline at home as well as a Scottish Cup tie with Cove Rangers to look forward to.
In contrast to his opposite number the Airdrie United manager Jimmy Boyle had a shell shocked look to him as he came into the press room clutching a dvd of the game; a dvd that was certain to make uncomfortable viewing for him. He certainly didn’t pull any punches in his assessment of his team’s display.
“First and foremost I have to say that Partick Thistle are a very good team and I thought that they started off great but it is schoolboy defending from us. I don’t think that Thistle had to work too hard for their goals, just a bit of movement and some passing moves. It was just ridiculous from us in the first half although I did think that the penalty was very, very soft. Thistle were though by far the better team and it could have been more by the end. I don’t think their keeper has had a single save to make.”
“I know that people are going to say that you have come up from the Second Division but the players are making it very difficult for me to continually back them with performances like that and like Hamilton the week before. We’ve got injuries to important players and with the squad that we’ve got we can’t afford those injuries. The players that have been coming in though just haven’t been taking the chance they’ve been given and I’m now going to have to change the team again.”
“That’s not acceptable. The supporters won’t accept it and I won’t accept it and I’m quite sure that the Chairman will have a few words to say to me about it. I’ll need to go back to the drawing board. I’ll work hard, as I’ve always done, and roll up my sleeves but these players really need to step up, they just haven’t done that in the last four or five weeks. Too many players are hiding and that won’t get us results; it will get us defeats like that especially against a very good side like that.”
