Sunday 14th October, 2012 at 9:02pm
After a gap of 41 years Thistle are once again looking forward to an appearance in a Final of a national cup competition but, as expected, this afternoon’s semi-final encounter with Cowdenbeath proved to be a real battle.
Thistle lost their unbeaten league record in their previous fixture with Morton and manager Jackie McNamara made two changes to the side that started that game. Injury ruled out Club Captain, Paul Paton took the captain’s armband in his absence, and his slot in the team went to Conrad Balatoni. There was no place in the team either for Hugh Murray as Sean Welsh returned from injury and the manager altered the shape of the team to reflect the anticipated physical battle on a tight pitch.
And a battle the game proved to be. An early goal for either side may well have changed the whole dynamic of the encounter, and Thistle were close to taking the lead in the 15th minute. Chris Erskine, who had just moved from a central role to one on the right hand side, saw his shot pushed away by Flynn in the Cowdenbeath goal. Flynn again saved when Paul Paton drilled the loose ball towards goal. Still the danger wasn’t over and Steven Lawless really should have done better than head wide of target as the ball spun upwards.
Three minutes later Flynn was again in action, this time turning a Stephen O’Donnell effort round the post after O’Donnell’s forceful run had taken him deep into the Cowdenbeath penalty area.
It was a positive opening quarter from Thistle and Sean Welsh was able to connect with a Ross Forbes corner as Thistle tried to turn their early ascendancy into a lead. Welsh, however, was unable to direct his header on target.
After those relatively early Thistle chances it would be first half injury time before either side would again come close to scoring. Scott Fox hadn’t seen too much direct action up to this point but he had to be at his best to turn a first time effort from Marc McKenzie, after Paul Paton had given the ball away, round the post for a corner.
The home side started the second half firmly on the front foot forcing a series of corner kicks and also putting the Thistle defence under pressure with some long throws from Scott Linton. The Thistle defence though held firm, although Scott Fox was required to tip one header over the bar.
From the very early stages of the second half this was a game that looked likely to be settled by just a single goal. In the 69th minute a well struck Sean Welsh free kick forced Flynn into a save, although to be fair he wasn’t overly stretched in doing so.
He was, however, picking the ball out of the net just four minutes later. Stephen O’Donnell’s pass sent Steven Lawless clear. Lawless could have shot for goal himself but showed excellent awareness to spot Steven Craig to his right and Craig tucked the ball into the back of the net.
A second Thistle goal nearly followed just four minutes later. Stephen O’Donnell’s long throw from the right found Steven Lawless and his header dropped just the wrong side of the post.
Paul Paton was far away from netting a rare goal when, with the game nudging the 90 minute mark, he saw a long range effort pushed round the post by the impressive Flynn.
It was inevitable that Cowdenbeath, who had put so much into the game, wouldn’t allow the chance to reach the final slip away without a fight and there was no shortage of balls into the Thistle box in the closing stages of the game. Only once though was Scott Fox required to keep the ball out but it was a fine stop from the Thistle keeper that denied Greg Stewart with the game in injury time.
Goalkeeper Flynn came forward for the corner and the last serious action of the game saw the Cowdenbeath keeper head well wide of goal.
