Sat 23 February, 2013
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1 
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow.Chris Erskine (76)
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1
Sat 23 February, 2013. Kick Off: - 15:00
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow.
With the title races all but settled in three of Scotland’s four divisions tomorrow signifies the latest instalment in what is proving a compelling championship campaign in the First Division.
On Tuesday night Thistle won the first of their games in hand to edge that bit closer to the top of the league. The win over Hamilton was a narrow one and Alan Archibald, speaking to ptfc.co.uk after training today, is expecting a similarly tough encounter when we play Airdrie United at Firhill tomorrow.
“It will be interesting to see how Airdrie United will approach the game tomorrow. In the previous matches with them they haven’t really sat in the way others have at times and it could be that they will come to Firhill tomorrow and have a go. The important thing though is what we do. We’ll need to be patient. I’m sure that we will get chances throughout the game and it will be up to us to take them.”
The manager is in the happy position of having a full squad to select from.
“There were a few aches, pains and tired legs after Tuesday’s game, but everyone is fit. We also have Hugh Murray back after missing Tuesday through suspension. He’s available for the next two games before then missing the Dunfermline game. Paul Paton is also suspended for that game and it isn’t ideal having both out for the same game but we’ll deal with that when we need to.”
Playing Saturday, midweek, then Saturday again can put a strain on a squad and having everyone fit and available at least gives Alan the option to make changes should he feel that the side needs freshened up any.
“As I said, there were some tired legs after Tuesday’s game and it is at the back of your mind to make changes because of that. In doing so though you don’t want to upset the team too much and we are in the fortunate position of being able to make changes, if we want, without altering the shape of the team or change the way we want to play. There’s a couple of things that we might do but it would very much be a case of like for like if we did.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 1 1 9 6
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Chris Erskine 12
Steven Craig 10
Steven Lawless 10
Kris Doolan 8
Conrad Balatoni 4
Stuart Bannigan 4
Ross Forbes 3
Aaron Muirhead 3
Aaron Sinclair 2
Sean Welsh 2
Christie Elliott 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Tuesday February 19th 2013
Partick Thistle 1, Hamilton Accies 0
Airdrie United Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 1 3 9 12
Scorers Season 2012-2013
John Boyle 9
Paul Di Giacomo 5
Ryan Donnelly 5
Jamie Bain 2
Nathan Blockley 2
Gregor Buchanan 2
Alan Cook 2
Willie McLaren 2
Josh Watt 2
Own Goals 2
Gavin Griffin 1
Jordan Moore 1
Kieron Stallard 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday February 16th 2013
Airdrie United 2, Hamilton Accies 2
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday December 29th 2012
Airdrie United 1, Partick Thistle 1
Teams
Airdrie United: Adam, O’Neill, Warren (Lilley), G Buchanan, Lamie, Barclay, L Watt, Blockley, Boyle (L Buchanan), Donnelly, McLaren (J Watt).
Thistle: Smith, Muirhead, Sinclair, Paton, Balatoni, Erskine, Archibald, Lawless, Bannigan, Craig, Welsh (Doolan), Erskine.
Scorers
Airdrie United: Boyle (41)
Thistle: Erskine (79)
Crowd: 1,617
Match Highlights
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday February 23rd 2013
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: Mike Tumilty
Assistant Referees: James Bee and Simon MacLean
Other First Division Fixtures
Cowdenbeath v Raith Rovers
Dumbarton v Falkirk
Dunfermline Athletic v Morton
Hamilton Accies v Livingston
It was a case of ‘job done’ for Thistle at the end of an encounter with Airdrie United that proved at times to be something of a slog. Cliché or not though; we are now at the stage of the season where getting the win is all that matters and another collectors’ item goal from Chris Erskine 14 minutes from time ensured that Thistle did just that.
With a tough programme of weekend followed by midweek fixtures, Alan Archibald had hinted prior to the game that he may freshen up his side and he did that making two changes to the side that started against Hamilton Accies. There were starts for Kris Doolan and Ross Forbes with Steven Craig and Sean Welsh dropping to the bench for this game.
Having conceded seven on their last visit to Firhill Airdrie United came into this match with a clear game plan to frustrate Thistle and they were largely successful in the first half in doing that. Their approach at times, however, verged on the overly robust with three of their back four booked inside the first 30 minutes. Grant Evans in particular may have considered himself a little fortunate to see only yellow for his foul on Steven Lawless.
Thistle’s opportunities in the first 45 minutes though were fairly limited despite their dominance of possession. Ross Forbes saw a free kick from the edge of the box curl wide with Thomson in the Airdrie United goal motionless but it was Chris Erskine that was the biggest threat to the visitors’ goal during the opening half.
In the 38th minute he drove at the heart of the Airdrie United defence before firing just wide from the edge of the box, and right on the stroke of half-time Thomson did well to tip Erskine’s net bound header over the bar.
The only other real chance Thistle had in a frustrating opening half was a sliced clearance from Grant Evans that flew straight into the waiting arms of his goalkeeper.
There was much more action in front of the Airdrie United goal in the second half with the visitors’ goalkeeper in excellent form.
His first save of note came just 90 seconds after the restart. Kris Doolan was able to turn inside the box and his shot looked to be heading for the net only for Thomson to save with his feet.
Just past the hour mark Ross Forbes had two chances in quick succession to break the deadlock. Firstly lashing the ball over the bar after an Aaron Sinclair cross had been flicked on by Chris Erskine and then knocking the ball wide of the advancing Thomson but also wide of target.
With the pressure mounting Kris Doolan was unable to divert the ball on target after a Ross Forbes corner had been headed back towards goal in the 65th minute. Two minutes later Thomson was again in the thick of the action; this time producing another excellent save to deny Chris Erskine.
The game was into the final 15 minutes when Thistle did finally make the breakthrough and the quality of the goal made the wait worthwhile. A Stuart Bannigan free kick was cleared only as far as Chris Erskine 20 yards from goal. Erskine promptly volleyed the ball into the net via the frame of the goal for his 13th goal of the season and his 4th against Airdrie United.
That completed the scoring but Thistle did have a couple of opportunities to clinch the victory and ease any late nerves. The impressive Thomson saved once more after Steven Craig had set up Chris Erskine and James Craigen, not long on as a substitute, cut across the edge of the Airdrie United box before shooting wide of goal.
At the other end Aaron Muirhead made an important block inside the box as Airdrie United pushed men forward in the closing stages for an equaliser that they would scarcely have deserved.
This wasn’t a wonderful Thistle display by any means but was further evidence that they have the ability to grind out a win and get the job done when required.
[link:HOME], as always, caught up with manager Alan Archibald after yesterday’s game and he admitted that the victory, as welcome as it was, wasn’t pretty at time.
“The first half was definitely ugly. It wasn’t pretty at all in the first half. The pitch didn’t help things and Airdrie made it difficult for us but we didn’t get the tempo of the game up high enough. I spoke to the players before the game and we knew how Airdrie would play and I felt that individually and as a team we were poor in the first half. I know it is difficult with the pitch but our tempo was poor and our movement of the ball could have been a lot better. I thought that they addressed that in the second half and we started the second half a lot better.”
Alan continued;
“Their goalkeeper had a number of good saves in the second half and that came from our tempo. Once we lifted the tempo and moved the ball quick and early we managed to get support up to the strikers; that was the difference in the second half.”
The manager was pleased that his side kept another clean sheet.
“The plus points for the day were getting the three points and keeping another clean sheet. A wins a win and this is the business end of the season. I wouldn’t want too many wins like that though. We want still to win games by playing good passing football and we are still trying to do that.”
Yesterday’s win sets up a big week for us with two trips to Fife. Alan though isn’t thinking any further ahead than Tuesday’s game with Cowdenbeath.
“The first game at Cowdenbeath we know is going to be difficult as there has only been one goal in it any time we’ve played them this season. We’ll address this game first. We picked up a few knocks today, Paul Paton for example has tweaked his ankle, and the players will be in tomorrow and we’ll take a closer look then at who is injured and who isn’t and we’ll plan ahead for Tuesday night.”
Yesterday, in a frustrating game, the fans lived up to their tag of twelfth man and that was something that the manager, unprompted, was quick to pick up on.
“There’s a real sense of togetherness at the Club this season on and off the park. Today the fans were unbelievable. It wasn’t great at times but they stuck with us throughout the whole game. The singing started in the North Stand and spread to the Jackie Husband Stand and that was just fantastic. Everyone is really pulling together right now and that means a lot to us.”
