Sunday 9th August, 2015 at 3:20pm
Thistle played their first home fixture of the 2015/16 Ladbrokes Premiership season on Sunday lunchtime as the BT Sport cameras came to Firhill.
Alan Archibald made three changes to the side which came away from Hamilton with a valuable point the week before. Frederic Frans missed out as a consequence of his suspension incurred during the game and he was replaced by Jack Hendry, the young defender who impressed with his substitute appearance. David Wilson and Steven Lawless also came into the side which saw Kris Doolan and David Amoo drop to the bench.
Thistle have conceded early goals to Celtic in each of the last two meetings at Firhill and our Glasgow rivals were keen to grab another quick goal to show their dominance. Izaguirre fired over a cross from the left which Griffiths fired high over the bar.
Thistle found themselves temporarily down to ten men as Stevenson needed treatment for a head knock, with Commons close to taking advantage with a low shot from the edge of the penalty area. Celtic continued their dominance in the opening 30 minutes of the game with van Dijk smacking a fierce shot off the post from 35 yards with Cerny appearing beaten. The
When the opening goal did arrive there was a feeling of inevitability about it, but Celtic did enjoy a stroke of fortune with it as well. Gary Miller’s clearance was blocked by MacGregor, an early substitute for Armstrong, and the ball fell kindly for the young midfielder to advance to the edge of the box firing over a cross. Griffiths took a touch to control allowing Rogic to flick the ball into the corner of the net with the heel of his foot.
Thistle came back into the game and on the stroke of half time had loud shouts for a penalty. Wilson got on the end of a Miller cross and flicked it back towards the box striking the arm of Lustig. The referee appeared unmoved, and with Thistle having been on the end of similar penalty decisions last season, it will add to Alan Archibald’s frustration with refereeing consistency.
Thistle made a bright start to the second half with Lawless close to getting onto the end of Wilson’s through ball before Thistle fans got their first glimpse of new signing Mathias Pogba who looked lively and made himself a physical presence in the final third of the pitch.
Celtic grabbed a decisive second goal shortly after the hour mark, when Callum Booth failed to deal with a routine long ball and Commons chipped the ball over Cerny into the unguarded net.
The pace of the game calmed for a while after the killer second goal although David Amoo did his best to liven proceedings with a cross to Pogba being unlucky to go marginally wide of goal.
Thistle were unable to get a goal back and fell to a defeat where the gulf in class between the sides was evident. Thistle will look to put it behind them and focus on the long trip to Inverness on Wednesday night.
