Wednesday 12th August, 2015 at 3:19pm
Thistle travelled north to Inverness in a bid to record the first league win of the season. Alan Archibald has enjoyed a good record in the Highlands as Thistle manager and was hoping his side would be able to continue that run of impressive form with only one defeat in the previous six league meetings with the Scottish Cup holders.
The manager made three changes to the side which went down to Celtic on Sunday with Frederic Frans returning from suspension to resume his usual central defensive berth, replacing the slightly unfortunate Jack Hendry who dropped to the bench despite impressing hugely in his first team fixtures to date. David Amoo and Mathias Pogba, who linked up well in the latter stages of the Celtic game were promoted to the starting line up replacing Ryan Stevenson and David Wilson, both of whom dropped to the bench.
The game started quietly with both sides struggling to impose themselves on the game. Thistle had the first opportunity as Pogba got a flick onto Bannigan’s free kick but Fon Williams was more than equal to it.
Despite this, it was Inverness who started the game better and Liam Lindsay had to be alert on a couple of occasions to block shots from Lopez and Draper after the home side had worked openings on the break.
Bannigan was imposing himself on the game early on and he went on one of his trademark surging runs deep into the half, before being hauled down 35 yards from goal. The free kick was touched to him by Welsh and the Inverness defender was able to close down the shot to block at close range.
Thistle were forced into an early substitution when Mathias Pogba pulled up chasing a ball into the channel. As a precaution he was substituted with Kris Doolan coming on to lead the line.
Steven Lawless was jinking about the pitch creating pockets of space for himself and he fired over a cross which Doolan couldn’t connect with the ball and Welsh nodded over from close range. Sean Welsh had another attempt on goal firing over after working some space for himself on the edge of the box.
If the first half was tame, then the second half sparked into life as Welsh found Doolan inside the box, but the striker was tackled before managing to get a shot on goal.
Inverness threatened Cerny’s goal for the first time when Lopez fired a shot narrowly wide of goal.
Just before the hour mark presented Thistle with their best opportunity to open the scoring. Welsh set up Lawless, perhaps delaying the pass a fraction too late. Lawless worked an opportunity for himself on the edge of the box and fired a powerful high shot which was tipped onto the bar by Fon Williams. The rebound dropped to Doolan who was unable to scramble the ball home, but the flag was up for offside in any case.
Thistle were coming into the ascendancy as the game progressed and Amoo was the next to have a shot blocked by a defender as Inverness resorted to last ditch defending in a bid to keep the score level.
Inverness were resorting to long ball in a bid to alleviate the Thistle pressure, but Frans and Lindsay were composed with dealing with the threat of Mutombo and Christie in the advanced areas of the Inverness side. On a couple of occasions late on the home side could have stolen the points when Vigurs curl an excellent free kick which Cerny did extremely well to turn around the post.
The game stretched from end to end with Thistle having a couple of great opportunities to steal the points. Bannigan strode through from midfield and with Lawless and Doolan both providing options, his touch let him down at the vital time and Inverness were able to clear.
Frans was next to have a go from the edge of the box but his shot was narrowly off target with Fon Williams appearing to be beaten.
Ultimately Thistle had to settle for a point and with it a second consecutive away clean sheet, the first time Thistle have started a season with consecutive away clean sheets since 1978/79.
