Sat 25 January, 2014
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership 
St Mirren Park, Paisley.
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership
Sat 25 January, 2014. Kick Off: - 15:00
St Mirren Park, Paisley.
After a run of three successive home games, which brought a disappointing return of just two points, Thistle are on the road again tomorrow when they travel through to Paisley to play St Mirren. Our last visit there produced an excellent 2-1 win and manager Alan Archibald is hoping for a repeat of that tomorrow.
“That was probably our best performance of the season and the highlight of the season so far. We passed the ball really well that afternoon and the players showed great character to come from 1-0 down to win 2-1. We’re very much hoping for a repeat of that performance and result tomorrow. Our home form though is really putting pressure on our away form. I don’t know if that is because we are a little too open when we play at Firhill and we adopt a bit more of a siege approach when we play away. Away from home we’ve generally been very well organised and I hope the players approach the game with the right kind of mentality tomorrow.”
Alan continued;
“It’s very tight down near the bottom of the league and it is important that we try and keep it that way and that’s why three points tomorrow would be really important for us.”
Alan approaches tomorrow’s game with almost a full squad to select from with Aaron Taylor-Sinclair and Stuart Bannigan back after missing Tuesday’s game through suspension.
“It will be great to have Aaron and Stuart back. I think we really missed Stuart against St Johnstone and I sometimes think that you don’t really notice a player until he isn’t there. We’re short of bodies in that area of the park with Sean Welsh and Isaac Osbourne injured and we missed Stuart’s energy and tenacity on Tuesday night. We missed Aaron too with Jordan McMillan, who I thought did well, having to occupying Aaron’s role when he isn’t left sided.”
Alan went on;
“Sean Welsh had an injection on Thursday and we’re told that he could be back in 3 weeks but we’ll need to wait and see what happens. If we get Isaac Osbourne back before the season’s end that would be a bonus but we’re taking it that he will be out for the rest of the season. Elsewhere Scott Fox trained today and he’s fine but Mark Kerr has picked up a knock and won’t be part of the squad tomorrow.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 2 2 6 6
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 7
Steven Lawless 5
Aaron Muirhead 4
Lyle Taylor 3
Christie Elliott 2
Kallum Higginbotham 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Ross Forbes 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Tuesday January 21st 2014
Partick Thistle 0, St Johnstone 1
St Mirren Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 1 3 5 11
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Stephen Thompson 9
Paul McGowan 3
Kenny McLean 3
Adam Campbell 2
John McGinn 2
Gary Harkins 1
Jason Naismith 1
Connor Newton 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday January 18th 2014
Hibs 2, St Mirren 3
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Saturday November 9th 2013
Partick Thistle 0, St Mirren 3
Teams
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Taylor-Sinclair, Balatoni, Craigen, Bannigan (Muirhead), Doolan, Lawless (Forbes), Piccolo (Elliott), Osbourne, Higginbotham.
St Mirren: Kello, Naismith (Van Zanten), McAusland, Newton, Kelly, Goodwin (Harkins), McGregor, McGinn, Thompson, McGowan (Grainger), McLean.
Scorers
St Mirren: Thompson (16 & 90), Newton (72)
Crowd: 4,946
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday January 25th 2014
St Mirren v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Match Officials
Referee: John Beaton
Assistant Referees: Charlie Smith and Brian McGarry
Fourth Official: Des Roache
Other Premiership Fixtures
Dundee United v St Johnstone (Monday)
Hibernian v Celtic (Sunday)
Kilmarnock v Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Motherwell v Aberdeen
RossCounty v Hearts
It was stalemate at New St Mirren Park as Thistle and St Mirren provided plenty of endeavour, often in terrible conditions, but no goals.
After losing at home to St Johnstone midweek Thistle manager Alan Archibald made three changes to his starting eleven. Stuart Bannigan and Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, both of whom who had missed the St Johnstone game through suspension, returned to the side while Aaron Muirhead also found a place in Archibald’s starting eleven. Stephen O’Donnell, Steven Lawless and Gary Fraser were the three players to drop to the bench to make way for them.
Heavy rain had been falling for much of the morning and although the rain had stopped in the hours immediately prior to the game by the time it kicked-off the wind and rain was back with a vengeance and that made it far from easy for the players.
It was Thistle though that had the better of the early exchanges. As early as the second minute Aaron Taylor-Sinclair managed to work himself into a good position down the left hand side but couldn’t find a Thistle man with his cross.
A Stuart Bannigan shot took a touch of a St Mirren defender on its’ way past the post as conditions started to ease and Kallum Higginbotham saw a couple of efforts go wide of target with a Chris Erskine shot from distance suffering a similar fate.
In the 26th minute Thistle suffered a blow when Kallum Higginbotham’s involvement in the afternoon’s proceedings came to a swift halt. Heading towards the St Mirren goal he was hauled down by Jason Naismith, who collected a yellow card for his crude challenge, on the edge of the St Mirren box. It quickly became clear that Higginbotham would be unable to continue, it was later confirmed that he required six stitches in a would just above his knee joint, and he sadly left the field on a stretcher and was replaced by Steven Lawless. Play resumed with Thistle making something of a mess of the free kick.
It was in the closing stages of the opening half that clear cut openings started to be created and it was the home side that had the clearer chances. Paul Gallacher made fine stops to deny Campbell and McGowan, the Thistle defence just about scrambled a cross clear with Thompson lurking to knock the ball home before Thompson’s touch deserted him when right in front of the Thistle goal and only Gallacher to beat.
At the other end James Craigen wasted Thistle’s best chance of the half after Taylor-Sinclair and Erskine had combined to give Craigen an opportunity at the back post; the Thistle player sending the ball high over the crossbar.
The second half followed a very similar pattern to that of the first with both sides expending plenty of energy but finding themselves out of luck in front of goal.
Paul Gallacher was once again called into action in the 51st minute when he had to save low down to prevent a Thompson effort from finding the back of the net.
The Thistle keeper, however, was beaten in the 78th minute as the game really started to open up in the closing stages, but McGowan’s effort smacked off the base of the Thistle post.
Two minutes later it was Thistle’s turn to hit the frame of the goal with a tremendous effort from Aaron Taylor-Sinclair from fully 30 yards out clipping the top of the crossbar.
Both sides did all they could to find a late winner and with legs tiring and conditions worsening again there were times when Thistle struggled to clear their lines. Thistle, however, were also able to exert pressure on the opposition goal. Kris Doolan did momentarily manage to get clear of the St Mirren defence but was quickly closed down and the game finished with Kello well positioned to save a James Craigen shot from the edge of the box.
Ultimately a point apiece was a fair reflection on a game that neither side would have deserved to have lost. From a Thistle perspective a point away from home is never a poor result, it’s Thistle’s home form that continues to cause concern.
Conditions at New St Mirren Park were hardly ideal but when [link:HOME] spoke to manager Alan Archibald in the warmth of the St Mirren Media Room after yesterday’s game he was full of praise for the efforts of both sets of players.
“I thought that both teams gave their all. I felt that we tired towards the end just because of the midweek game and you could see that in the last 5 or 10 minutes. The conditions didn’t help in that regard either. The players gave their all though.”
Alan continued;
“I think at the end of the game the wind was at its’ worst; it was horrendous. Fair play to both goalkeepers because they came and tried to catch things and it couldn’t have been easy for them in those conditions. We struggled to get the ball out our half at times when the wind was bad and it was the same with St Mirren in the first half when conditions were poor and we dominated the game. Conditions had a big part to play in the game today as when we were able to get the ball down and pass it I thought that we were very threatening.”
A plus point to take from the game was a clean sheet, our second away from home this season, and Lee Mair has slotted in well at the back since joining the Club from St Mirren. Said Alan;
“Lee did very well today and he used his experience well against his mate Stephen Thompson. He knows Thompson inside out from having played with him for the last couple of seasons and I thought that he did very well against him.”
A major downside from the afternoon was the injury picked up by Kallum Higginbotham in the first half and the manager was able to provide us with an update on his condition.
“Kallum got six stitches across his knee joint. It opened up straight away. It was a bad one for him and it was a bad one for the team as well as I thought he was coming into his game and was causing them problems; he got the player booked for the challenge on him. It was a hard one to take. I would imagine that he will be out for a few weeks. If it was stitches on anywhere else on the body you could possibly get away with strapping him up but with the knee joint we will need to have a look. If he trains and falls on it, it will just keep on bursting open. I’ll speak to the physio and the doctor and we’ll take things from there.”
Kallum wasn’t the only player to pick up a knock during the course of the game.
“Chris took a knock and Lyle Taylor was also struggling so all three substitutions today were enforced. Chris took a bad one down the back of his Achilles and Lyle we felt was tiring as he’s played a lot of football recently.”
Alan went on;
“Chris obviously won’t be able to play next week as it is against Dundee United and if Kallum is also out that will give us a problems as that will leave us two players down for next week.”
The January transfer window remains open for a time yet and the search for further additions to the squad continues;
“We’re still looking; we still need a bit of strengthening. I think it’s been there for everyone to see over the last few weeks. Any time we get a couple of injuries and suspensions that leaves us really light.”
As we move well into the second half of the season it’s becoming a really scramble for points in our area of the league table.
“It’s getting really tight down at the bottom. You just don’t know how results are going to go; you can’t predict them. All we can do is keep looking at those above us and try and get as many points as we can.”
