Sun 7 April, 2013
Ramsdens Cup 
The Braidwood Motor Company Stadium, Livingston.Kris Doolan (120)
Nicky Clark (101)
Ramsdens Cup
Sun 7 April, 2013. Kick Off: - 16:05
The Braidwood Motor Company Stadium, Livingston.
The waiting is nearly over. In a little over 24 hours’ time Partick Thistle will face Queen of the South in their first Cup Final since October 1971.
After the players had completed a rare Saturday training session [link:HOME] caught up with manager Alan Archibald as he headed to take in a Saturday afternoon fixture and he was able to report an excellent training session.
“There was a real excitement about the place at training today and there was a really good atmosphere. It helped too that we were able to train on the Firhill pitch. We couldn’t get our normal training facility today and I need to thank the groundsman for allowing us to train on the pitch.”
So has the manager told the players the team for tomorrow?
“I haven’t yet; I’ll do that tomorrow. It will be hard to let players down and tell them that they won’t be playing. It’s easier when it is a league game because a player knows that there is always another league game around the corner and that they might get their chance then. A cup final is different; there’s no guarantee that they’ll get another chance in a cup final. I’m 35 years old and I’ve only ever played in one. I was told at the time to make sure that I made the most of the occasion and not to let it go by. While at the time you might think, what does this old guy know; as you get older you start to realise the wisdom of that and that’s something that we will be stressing to the players. Make sure you make the most of tomorrow.”
Alan continued;
“I need to take that advice as well. Being involved in a cup final is a new experience of me. It’s different and you enjoy it all on a different level. I’d like to think that there will be plenty more cup finals for me as a manager but you can’t anticipate the future.”
One thing that the manager can anticipate is a very difficult match against the side that ran away with this season’s Second Division Championship.
“I think that Queen of the South would have more than held their own in this season’s First Division. I’m not being in the least patronising why I say that if, like us, they’d been in the First Division and got off to a good start then I would have expected them to be up challenging at the top. They’ve got many of the players that they had last season but they’ve managed to add a bit of quality as well. In many ways they are a very similar team to ourselves and I’m expecting a really good game tomorrow.”
Cup final or not the preparation ahead of tomorrow’s game isn’t really changing.
“The players had the chance to go to a hotel before the game but they decided that they wanted to keep things as normal as possible.”
And what then of the team news for tomorrow?
“Neither Hugh Murray or Paul Paton are going to be fit enough to play while I’m a doubt. With Andy Dowie and Jordan McMillan cup-tied that has down to almost the bare bones with about 16 or 17 fit players. If someone misses out though that provides an opportunity for someone else and when that has happened previously this season that player has more often than not given a very good account of themselves.”
To round things off Alan said;
“These are occasions that you only truly savour if you end up winning and that’s what we are naturally aiming to do tomorrow. That would set us up nicely for what is shaping up to be a very important game with Morton on Wednesday night.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
4 1 0 13 2
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Steven Craig 14
Kris Doolan 14
Chris Erskine 14
Steven Lawless 13
Conrad Balatoni 5
Stuart Bannigan 4
Ross Forbes 4
Aaron Muirhead 4
Christie Elliott 2
Stephen O’Donnell 2
Aaron Sinclair 2
Sean Welsh 2
James Craigen 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Tuesday April 2nd 2013
Raith Rovers 0, Partick Thistle 0
Queen of the South Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
4 1 0 13 3
Scorers season 2012-2013
Nicky Clark 33
Gavin Reilly 15
Derek Lyle 14
Mark Durnan 7
Ryan McGuffie 6
Danny Carmichael 3
Chris Higgins 3
Derek Young 3
Paul Burns 2
Willie Gibson 2
Christopher Mitchell 2
Michael Paton 2
Kevin Smith 2
David Hopkirk 1
Stephen McKenna 1
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday March 17th 2012
Queen of the South 0, Partick Thistle 5
Teams
Queen of the South: Robinson, Reid, Higgins, McKenna, McGuffie, Potter, Johnston (Smith), McLaughlin (Simmons), Parker, Brighton (Reilly), Carmichael.
Thistle: Scully, O’Donnell, Sinclair, Paton, Robertson (Kinniburgh), Archibald, Cairney (Stewart), Rowson, Doolan (Elliott), Welsh, Erskine.
Scorers
Thistle: Doolan (17 & 64), O’Donnell (42), Erskine (69), Elliott (85)
Crowd: 1,689
Match Highlights
Match Details
Ramsdens Cup Final
Sunday April 7th 2013
Partick Thistle v Queen of the South
Kick-off: 4:05pm
GAME SOLD OUT
Traffic Information
Match Officials
Referee: Crawford Allan
Assistant Referees: Stuart MacMillan and Graeme Stewart
Fourth Official: Paul Robertson
Partick Thistle’s Ramsdens Cup adventure ended in a heart breaking defeat on penalties after an otherwise indifferent game had an explosive conclusion.
The non-availability of a number of players for a variety of reasons made manager Alan Archibald’s team selection relatively straightforward but he did still have one big call to make; Steven Craig getting the nod to start ahead of Kris Doolan.
In what proved to be a bruising physical battle Thistle’s Chris Erskine received a painful blow to his back in a challenge with Chris Mitchell inside the game’s first 90 seconds. Thistle though were able to start the game on the front foot and they immediately took the game to their opponents, winning a number of corners in fairly rapid fashion.
They were, however, unable to make their early pressure count and with the stiff breeze making things difficult for both teams the game became fairly quickly an untidy affair.
There were few chances in the first half with Queens have the best of the few that there were. In the 11th minute Derek Lyle shot over the bar before, in the 36th minute, Nicky Clark missed a glaring opportunity at the back post after Lyle had flicked on a Mitchell corner.
Thistle’s best opportunity in the opening half was a shot from distance from Stuart Bannigan that Robinson did well to claw away from his goal, although it did look as if it might have been sneaking past the post in any case.
The second half brought little improvement or much change in the pattern of play. Queen of the South continued to look the side more likely to break the deadlock and it took a fine stop from Scott Fox to prevent Clark from scoring in the 57th minute. Mark Durnan too came close with a glancing header following a Chris Mitchell free kick.
Sean Welsh rather wasted an excellent opportunity for Thistle with a free kick on the edge of the Queens box as the game moved into its’ closing stages and Kris Doolan, on as a sub for Steven Craig, nearly snatched a win right at the death but Robinson got just enough of a touch to Doolan’s shot to take it round the post.
With the game still goalless though it was into extra-time.
Kris Doolan had the first chance of extra-time when he angled a shot wide of Robinson outstretched arms but Queen of the South did finally manage to break the stalemate when they nudged themselves in front after 101 minutes of action.
Danny Carmichael’s effort hit the bar and Nicky Clark was in the right place at the right time to nod the ball home from close range.
That goal at the time had the look of a winner about it but the second period of extra-time was an explosive 15 minutes of action.
Thistle were close to an equaliser when the impressive Ross Forbes spotted fellow sub Christie Elliott to his right. Elliott’s shot flew across goal with Kris Doolan just unable to apply a finish at the back post.
With Thistle now looking a real threat for the first time in the game, Ross Forbes curled a free kick towards goal that Robinson did well to push away at his near post.
With just two minutes of extra-time remaining Thistle were handed a lifeline. Christie Elliott was fouled just inside the Queen of the South box and Thistle had a penalty. Aaron Muirhead had previously a 100% record from the spot this season but on this occasion Robinson dived to his right and produced an excellent stop to keep the penalty out. In the melee that followed Muirhead struck Chris Higgins with his head with a red card the only possible outcome.
There was still drama to come in this game. With just seconds remaining Ross Forbes sent over a cross from the left and Kris Doolan was on hand to bundle the ball home from close range to spark wild scenes of celebration and send the tie into penalties.
After Derek Young had netted the first penalty of the shoot out, Stephen O’Donnell saw his effort saved to hand an early advantage to Queen of the South.
Scott Fox, however, was able to save Danny Carmichael’s effort to once again level things up and it wasn’t until Conrad Balatoni, who was excellent throughout the game, took Thistle’s seventh penalty that another kick was missed. That miss was enough to hand the Ramsdens Cup to Queen of the South and see Thistle’s afternoon finish in bitter disappointment.
As you can imagine, and in sharp contrast to some recent away games, it was a sombre team bus that headed back to Glasgow from Livingston yesterday.
[link:HOME] spoke to manager Alan Archibald as the team bus pulled out of the Livingston car park and his initial assessment probably summed up how we were all feeling at the time.
“The way that it panned out that was a sore one. Losing on penalties is not a nice way to lose a Cup Final by any means especially after we got ourselves back in it in the last minute. They showed a bit of character there but it is a sore one to take. I feel for Conrad to be honest with you. He was one of our best players on the day and he’s been one of our best players all season. He showed a lot of courage to step up and take the penalty. We’ve all been in that position and it is a lottery by that point. We had six names written down of players that would definitely take a penalty and that’s all that you can ask for.”
Did Alan think that when Kris Doolan equalised with almost the last kick of the ball that our name was on the cup?
“I did. We hadn’t played up till then to be honest. We didn’t get anywhere near the way we have been playing all season. We didn’t pass the ball at all and maybe the occasion got the better of some of our lads.”
Only very rarely did Alan think his side had been the better of the two teams.
“I thought that we started extra-time the better team. It was probably the only spell in the game when we were the better team.”
Conditions weren’t ideal yesterday but as the manager correctly pointed out that was something that both teams had to contend with.
“I don’t think either side has played much football today although both have had good seasons. I don’t think the ball got passed about at all. I don’t know if that was down to the wind or the balls and the surface probably didn’t help but that’s an excuse for both teams; it certainly isn’t an excuse for just one. I thought that they played the conditions better than we did. ”
An explosive finish saw Aaron Muirhead sent off after seeing his penalty saved. Alan was able to provide us with his take on what occurred.
“I didn’t see it happen but by all accounts he’s headbutted the lad. He’s taken the penalty and the lad has rushed up to him and Aaron’s first reaction is to lash out. I was disappointed with that and I was more disappointed with his reaction after that; he was getting involved with the crowd. That’s why I was having a go at him as he came off the pitch. I just wanted him to get down the tunnel before he got himself into more trouble. He’s a young lad and he’ll need to learn from these things.”
At the moment we are unsure what punishment Aaron will receive.
“He was already out of Wednesday’s game and at the moment we don’t know what other games he will miss. No doubt Ian Maxwell will be able to let us know about that in due course but it is a blow to be without him.”
On a more positive note Alan continued;
“I think Ross Forbes and Christie Elliott both made a big contribution when they came on. I felt they changed the game for us a wee bit. Christie brought a bit of energy to the team. He got the ball down and he drove at them and it was a wee bit of brilliance from Ross to set up the goal.”
We move on now to a huge game on Wednesday against Morton. Said Alan;
“If you can’t get up for that game you’ll not be up for any game. It’s now a massive game for us, it now becomes another cup final for us. We’ll need to see how they recover from today when they never really showed up. They’ll not be able to do that on Wednesday night.”
A couple of days ahead of that game there are already doubts surrounding the fitness of some players.
“I think we’ve got a few that are struggling. Christie Elliott is a doubt, someone stood on his ankle. Then there’s Stuart Bannigan who came off during the game and I think Jordan McMillan is already a doubt. He’s been unwell since last week and I haven’t actually seen him since last Thursday. We’ll see how things are when they come in on Monday morning. It was always our plan, win or lose, to have the players in on Monday as we start to plan for the Morton game. I know we’ve had a lot of midweek games but you want to get the players in as quickly as possible and start the recovery process.”
