Sunday 21st May, 2023 at 8:40pm
Season 2022-2023 has been a fantastic, historic, one for Partick Thistle Women’s FC. A top six finish was beyond the expectations of just about everyone outside of the Thistle dressing room. The performances produced since the very first SWPL1 split suggest that this Club is very much moving in a forward direction.
Unfortunately they were unable to end the season by finding the victory that their post split performances have merited as Hibernian exited Petershill Park with all three points on an afternoon that just didn’t signify the end of the season, but for two the end of their Partick Thistle careers.
For Kim Murphy this game brought down the curtain not just on her time as Thistle player but also on her playing career as she hangs up her boots. Fittingly she took the captain’s armband for this game and although she wasn’t able to finish her career as part of a winning team she did have the satisfaction of having a literal hand, or hands, in the Thistle goal in the 2-1 defeat.
For Taylor McGlashan, who spoke eloquently about her ending a long and distinguished Thistle career during the week, it was a heart breaking way to end her time as Jag. Her last two seasons have been marred by injury and it was cruel in the extreme that her time as a Partick Thistle player ended with her in pain on the Petershill Park pitch having picked up another, serious looking, injury. We wish her a speedy recovery.
McGlashan had been involved in the action early making an important challenge inside the box as Hibs had the better of the early exchanges.
Hinds sent a shot wide of Megan Cunningham’s left hand post after 13 minutes before the same player opened the scoring for Hibs 3 minutes later. Cunningham did well to block a Tweedie effort but Hinds was on hand to net from close range.
Thistle were behind though for less than 10 minutes.
Murphy’s throw was collected inside the box by Cara Henderson who spun towards goal before sending a shot into the net via the inside if the post.
Having trailed Thistle were a whisker away from taking the lead in their very next attack. Abbie Ferguson, playing her last game for Thistle while on loan from Celtic, found Rachel Donaldson to her left and Donaldson was unfortunate to see her shot hit the outside of the post.
Cunningham saved well from McAlonie and Ferguson saw a shot fizz over the bar after collecting a Donaldson pass as both sides looked to take a lead into the dressing room at half-time.
The second half was just seconds old when the game did have a third, and ultimately decisive goal, when Clare Docherty inadvertently diverted the ball past her own goalkeeper when trying to block a shot.
Henderson smacked a shot off the post as Thistle looked to restore equality in double quick time and Ferguson was unfortunate to see her flicked effort go wide of the post.
Sub Claire Adams saw a drive go wide and a Henderson shot suffered a similar fate as Thistle pressed for an equaliser as time started to run out on the home side. When a Linzi Taylor header from a Docherty cross was just a shade too high to threaten the Hibs goal you felt that this just wasn’t going to be Thistle’s day, and so it proved.
