Tuesday 8th March, 2022 at 11:39pm
Having beaten Inverness in dramatic fashion four days prior, Partick Thistle looked to build on that win as they took on Queen of the South in midweek at Firhill in a rearranged cinch Championship fixture.
There was one change made by Ian McCall to the team which started the win over Caley Thistle with Alex Jakubiak taking Brian Graham’s spot in the starting XI.
In their triumph over Inverness, Thistle were impressive in the first half but unfortunately that wasn’t something they could replicate against the Doonhamers. In fact, neither team threatened much during the first 45 minutes. It took until the 22nd minute for a semblance of an opportunity to appear as Darragh O’Connor headed goalwards but Kevin Holt was well-placed to clear the effort.
There was another headed chance for the away side on 28 minutes as Ruari Paton went close to a second goal at Firhill this season. A Wullie Gibson free-kick dropped perfectly in behind the Thistle defence finding Paton in plenty of space, however, the ex-Stranraer man couldn’t keep his header down and the score remained level.
The hosts’ best opening on the first period came with nine minutes to go until the break. Stuart Bannigan fed the ball into Alex Jakubiak’s feet and the number 10 laid the ball off to Richard Foster on the left wing. Foster lifted a cross towards the edge of the six-yard box where Juan Alegria rose above his marker to nod it towards the top corner. He couldn’t have done much more with his attempt and yet Josh Rae was still able to get a hand to it, clawing it away from goal to deny the Colombian a first Thistle goal.
Thistle made two changes at half-time as Brian Graham and Cammy Smith replaced Juan Alegria and Connor Murray and the alterations seemed to have an immediately positive reaction on the pattern of the Jags’ play.
Six minutes after the restart Josh Rae was called into action again and it was a Richard Foster cross causing issues once more. The full-back swung a right-footed ball in from the left side after a quickly taken throw-in and Cammy Smith attacked it. The midfielder couldn’t get a touch to the ball and that almost caught Rae out as he flapped an arm at the ball to just about tip it over the bar.
There were two further half-chances for the Maryhill men before ten minutes had past in the second half. First Cammy Smith had a low shot comfortably saved after some nice build-up play from the Jags and ten Brian Graham saw his deflected effort comfortably held after Smith had worked the ball over to him.
Thistle continued to apply the pressure as the hour mark came and went. Alex Jakubiak drove forward on the right side of the Jags’ attack and fired a shot wide of the far post before Ciaran McKenna headed wide of the same post as he got on the end of Stuart Bannigan’s cross.
As the minutes ticked on, the home side seemed to be getting closer and closer and Brian Graham had one of the team’s best opportunities yet on 67 minutes. Richard Foster received the ball from Kyle Turner and floated a teasing ball towards the back post where Brian Graham was patiently waiting. The number nine attacked the delivery when it came into reach and powered a header back across goal but it bounced inches past the upright and out for a goal kick.
Another big chance was passed up by the home side in the 70th minute as a Kyle Turner corner caused a bit of turmoil for the visitors. His set piece flew towards Ross Docherty but his flick-on rebounded off Wullie Gibson and into the path of Cammy Smith. The number 11 took the shot on first time with his left foot but couldn’t keep his effort down as the shot flew over the bar.
Then, just as it seemed the game was slipping away from the Jags, there was hope! A Richard Foster pass towards the edge of the box was touched on by Kyle Turner. That got Cammy Smith moving in the box but as he tried to latch on to the Turner lay-off, he was dragged to the ground by Josh Debayo prompting the referee to point to the spot.
Kevin Holt was the man who stepped up to take the spot kick and the left-back, who scored the winner in the team’s previous game, was tasked with doing the same again. With every eye in the stadium on him, he stepped up and confidently fired his penalty into the bottom right corner despite Josh Rae guessing the correct side and after a red and yellow barrage in the second half the Jags finally had the goal they were looking for.
They almost had a second goal a couple of minutes before time as well as Brian Graham came close to scoring one of the best goal seen at Firhill in a long while. The striker dispossessed Euan East at the half-way line and dribbled down the right touchline before evading the challenge of Wullie Gibson with some neat footwork. He then reversed a pass to Cammy Smith who had made a run past him on the right flank. Graham then burst forward into the box and received a pass back from Smith, shimmying past Darragh O’Connor before seeing his shot saved by Josh Rae.
It proved inconsequential though as the home side saw the game out to take a massively important three points courtesy of another Kevin Holt goal.
