Sat 27 April, 2013
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1 
Firhill Stadium, GlasgowJordan McMillan (27)
Chris Erskine (84)
Steven Lawless (90)
Ryan Wallace (65)
Ryan Thomson (72, 80)
Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Division 1
Sat 27 April, 2013. Kick Off: - 15:00
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow
Tomorrow will be a special afternoon for Partick Thistle Football Club. The culmination of season’s hard work will see Thistle collect the Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division trophy. It’s an afternoon that manager Alan Archibald is really looking forward to; as we all are.
“It’s going to be a great day. I know I enjoyed these days when we received the Second Division and First Division titles. I’ve absolutely no doubt that the fans will turn up in big numbers for this game. They’ve been great both home and away recently and they deserve to enjoy the day tomorrow.”
In the first half of the week the players, who have been playing twice a week since the start of February, were given a well deserved break.
“The players were given a few days off after the Falkirk game. I think they deserved that break, especially given the schedule of matches they’ve had in the last few months. They were back in on Wednesday though and it was business as usual as we’ve a game to win on Saturday.”
Although the title may have been won there is no doubt that the manager is determined to finish the season with another couple of wins.
“We’ve an excellent home record this season and we are on a long unbeaten run. We want both of them to continue with a win tomorrow. I’m hoping that the fact that the pressure is off us and we can relax a wee bit will be reflected in the performance that we produce. We need to be mindful too that tomorrow’s game is a very important one for Dunfermline and we’ll need to make sure that we give nothing less than 100%.”
Alan does have a few injury worries ahead of tomorrow’s game.
“Paul Paton, Hugh Murray and Sean Welsh will again miss the game and to the list injured players we can now add the name of James Craigen. James picked up an injury in training on Wednesday and that means we go into tomorrow’s game short of four central midfielders which isn’t ideal.”
Does a shortage of numbers mean that the Thistle fans might get their wish to see Alan Archibald in action once more this season?
Said Alan;
“I’m in the squad and I’ll play if I’m needed to help us win the game but I would much rather give a younger player an opportunity. The last couple of games do give us the opportunity of taking a look at some of the younger players when they don’t have to deal with the pressure of having to try and win a league.”
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 2* 0 6 2
(* one of the draws ended in a 6-5 defeat on penalties)
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Kris Doolan 15
Chris Erskine 15
Steven Craig 14
Steven Lawless 13
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
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 20th 2013
Falkirk 0, Partick Thistle 2
Dunfermline Athletic Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 1 2 6 7
Scorers season 2012-2013
Andy Barrowman 14
Ryan Wallace 10
Ryan Thomson 8
Stephen Husband 6
Andy Kirk 4
Andy Dowie 2
Josuha Falkingham 2
Andy Geggan 2
Callum Morris 2
Joe Cardle 1
Craig Dargo 1
Stephen Jordan 1
Chris Kane 1
Jordan McMillan 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 20th 2013
Dunfermline Athletic 1, Cowdenbeath 0
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday March 2nd 2013
Dunfermline Athletic 0, Partick Thistle 4
Teams
Dunfermline: Gallacher, Geggan, McMillan, Dowie, Morris, Kane, Cardle (Smith), Thomson, Kirk (Husband), Dargo (Millen), Wallace.
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Sinclair, Forbes, Muirhead, Balatoni, Welsh, Bannigan (Craigen), Craig (Doolan), Lawless (McGuigan), Erskine.
Scorers
Thistle: Craig (44, 22, 33), Forbes (15)
Crowd: 2,822
Match Highlights
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 27th 2013
Partick Thistle v Dunfermline Athletic
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults: £17
OAP (65+): £12
16-21: £12
Full Time Education: £12
Under 16s: FREE*
Programme £2.50
* We would like too to remind Dunfermline fans, who will be housed in the Main Stand on Saturday, of the deal we’ve put in place for them this weekend.
Should Dunfermline bring more than 500 supporters to that we will donate the Net income from any surplus to Dunfermline on the understanding it goes directly to the players’ wages.
For this fixture only we will charge Dunfermline Under 16 supporters £5. All the money this generates, including those sold within the first 500 Dunfermline fans, will go directly to Dunfermline; again with the understanding that it used for players’ wages. Please note this is a strict one off and doesn’t replace our normal Kids Go Free policy.
We would ask if the fans of both Thistle and Dunfermline could arrive early for this match if it all possible.
Match Officials
Referee: Willie Collum
Assistant Referees: David McGeachie and Grant Irvine
Other First Division Fixtures
Airdrie United v Livingston
Cowdenbeath v Dumbarton
Morton v Hamilton Accies
Raith Rovers v Falkirk
Dunfermline came close to spoiling the Firhill party a little only for Thistle to once again demonstrate their never say die approach and rescue a point with a goal deep into injury time.
There had been, however, little sign of a potential surprise result in a first half that was almost completely dominated by Thistle. For all that dominance though Thistle held only a one goal advantage at half-time. That goal was scored former Dunfermline player Jordan McMillan who was making his first start as a Partick Thistle player. His goal arrived in the 27th minute. Chris Erskine spotted McMillan to his right and he was able to lay the ball into his path. With just Hrivnak to beat McMillan drilled the ball low into the net. In contrast to the celebrations in the stands; McMillan’s own celebration, showing respect to his former club and team mates, was more muted.
Although Thistle enjoyed long spells of possession and had Dunfermline firmly on the back foot McMillan’s goal was the only clear cut opportunity that they had in the first half. There wasn’t a great deal of activity in front of the Thistle goal either in the first half although Josh Falkingham came close with a deflected shot as the half-time whistle neared.
There was no shortage, however, of action in the second 45 minutes with an impressive Dunfermline performance causing Thistle no end of problems. Dunfermline had already missed two gilt edged chances in the second half before they did finally equalise in the 65th minute. Alan Smith saw his shot cleared off the line in the 55th minute with Falkingham somehow knocking the loose ball wide when a goal looked certain. Two minutes later Scott Fox made a fine stop to deny Ryan Wallace as the Thistle defence was again opened up.
The equaliser when it arrived was, therefore, a deserved one. Husband was able to fine Wallace who after taking a touch to steady himself sent the ball into the back of the net.
Four minutes later Dunfermline were close to taking the lead only for Fox to make another important save; this time to prevent Thomson from scoring.
A second Dunfermline goal though would soon follow although there was a hint of controversy surrounding it. Scott Fox did well to parry Ryan Wallace’s shot but Ryan Thomson was able to knock the ball home with the referee not seeing an apparent tug on Andy Dowie.
Dunfermline looked well on course for three points when they added a third goal with just ten minutes of the game remaining when Thomson headed home from close range following a corner from the left.
This Thistle side, however, don’t know when they are beaten and with 7 minutes remaining they hauled themselves right back into the game. Chris Erskine, making his final appearance at Firhill as a Partick Thistle player, squeezed the ball home after a neat interchange with Kris Doolan.
With the game heading into a 5th minute of injury time it didn’t look as if Thistle would complete a remarkable comeback but there was still time for one more chance. Steven Craig, on the left hand side, did well to get the ball back into the box and when his cross wasn’t cleared Steven Lawless was able to steer the ball into the net to complete the scoring for the afternoon and maintain Thistle’s unbeaten league record under Alan Archibald.
No match reaction
