Saturday 19th September, 2015 at 3:09pm
Thistle travelled to Dingwall heartened by a good performance against Dundee seven days earlier, looking to maintain a strong record against the Staggies.
Alan Archibald was forced to rejig his side as illness deprived him of the services of Liam Lindsay, Dan Seaborne returning to the starting lineup, while Sean Welsh returned to the heart of the midfield as Robbie Muirhead dropped to the substitutes bench.
The game got off to a fast, frantic start with both sides being scrappy and loose with possession, but for the opening stages there wasn’t any clear opportunities for either side in front of goal. Thistle were keen to play expansive football against their hosts, with Lawless and Booth linking up well down the left hand side, with only a poor delivery bringing the attack to an abrupt end.
With just over a quarter of an hour gone, Ross County marched ahead. Jamie Reckord took a poor County free kick, but the ball found its way back to him and he arched a dangerous cross into the heart of the box. Liam Boyce made an unmarked run deep into the box and his head flew past Cerny before he had time to react.
Thistle were shocked at the concession of an early goal and took a while to get back into their stride, being fortunate that the hosts were unable to take advantage of several presentable opportunities in front of goal. The Jags best chance of the first half was to follow shortly, as Lawless slid in Welsh who did well to force a good low save from his angled drive.
The remainder of the first half descended into a scrappy midfield battle with County more than matching a poor showing in the Thistle midfield.
Thistle came out with a renewed vigour in the second half, but for all their attacking play, struggled to create a clear cut opportunity to test Scott Fox in the County goal in the opening stages of the second half.
Chris Robertson came close to adding a second for Ross County when he got on the end of a corner, but in truth the game was lacking in urgency with little to excite the 3,500 strong crowd at the Global Energy Stadium.
Alan Archibald tried to inject energy in his side with the introduction of Amoo, Muirhead and a debut for development squad striker Kevin Nisbet to his side as he looked to salvage a point from the game. Muirhead showed willingness and directness being encouraged to shoot on sight.
Thistle had two chances to get level in the dying embers of the game with Kevin Nisbet key in both. Firstly he picked out Muirhead who fired over despite having time and space on the edge of the box. Then deep into injury time he teed up Steven Lawless who flicked the cross wide of goal.
Thistle will be disappointed to have conceded such an avoidable goal and emerge back to Glasgow with no points and still sitting at the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table
