Monday 25th May, 2026 at 11:50pm
Partick Thistle’s season ended in disappointment as a 1-0 loss to St. Mirren in Paisley meant a 2-1 aggregate defeat in the William Hill Premiership play-off final.
Mark Wilson made one change to his starting XI, with Ben Stanway returning from injury in place of Logan Chalmers as Thistle stuck with the 5-2-1-2 formation they used to good effect in the second half of the first leg.
The early minutes saw Thistle on the front foot, racing up the park from the first whistle to try and force an early goal.
Nevertheless, the first real chance of the game would fall for St. Mirren on five minutes. A short corner was worked from Devaney to Tanser on the corner of the box. His cross into the mixer was met by Fraser, but the header was directed straight into the arms of Josh Clarke.
Despite that early chance, it was Thistle who continued to threaten. On eight minutes, Alex Gogic was caught on the ball by Tony Watt. The ball made its way to Aidan Fitzpatrick, via Stanway, but the winger’s effort was deflected a shade wide for a corner.
Fitzpatrick would get another chance three minutes later when Watt was wiped out by Miguel Freckleton to give Thistle a free kick in a dangerous area. After some deliberation, Fitzpatrick went for goal, finding only the side netting.
The next ten minutes saw Thistle continue to ask questions of the Saints defence, who looked nervy, but managed to keep the Jags at bay for the most part.
On 27 minutes, a rare Saints chance saw Jake Young and Allan Campbell have two ferocious shots blocked by Thistle defenders, before the Jags launched a counter attack. Watt set up Samuel down the left, but the Welshman’s shot was stopped with ease by Saints keeper Ross Sinclair.
Next came an unsettled period for Sinclair, who first spilled a shot from Crawford after some really good Jags passing play, before dashing to make sure a corner wasn’t conceded from a shot by McBeth moments later.
The home side then had a brace of good chance to take the lead close to half time. First, on 38 minutes, Phillips fed a ball to Mandron about 20 yards from goal on the left-hand side. Mandron flashed a ball across the face of goal which trundled comfortably wide.
They then endangered the Jags’ goal through first leg goalscorer Killiam Phillips. Having found a yard of space in the box, he took his chance on the spin but did not trouble Clarke with the last meaningful attempt of the first period.
Going down the tunnel, the Jags could be seen as the better side, with the Saints playing it safe in possession, but Mark Wilson’s men were unable to capitalise on their dominance in attack.
Half-time – St. Mirren 0 Partick Thistle 0
Still level despite looking second best, St. Mirren came out after the restart with renewed vigour. Early on, Mandron grappled with Thistle captain Lee Ashcroft for a loose ball, with Ashcroft holding his line well.
Seconds later, Jake Young tried his luck from range with his left foot, with Clarke in the Thistle net having to stretch himself to the limit to tip it over the bar. The resultant corner saw Saints have three bites at the cherry, but Thistle cleared their lines.
The Jags were next to try and break the deadlock. Samuel got on the end of a lovely pass from Crawford, with the striker taking a single touch to carve out some space. Sinclair parried his shot away, as the rebound eluded Fitzpatrick and Watt.
First blood was finally drawn on 61 minutes, and it went the way of the Buddies from a free kick in the Thistle half.
The set piece was launched into the box, towards the back post, where Marcus Fraser was lurking. He got a touch, crashing the ball off the bar and into the goal for 1-0. A VAR check for offside gave Jags fans some brief hope but after a lengthy delay, the goal was confirmed.
In an effort to shake things up and regain control, Wilson turned to his bench and switched formation to a 4-3-3 as Logan Chalmers came on for McBeth. It failed to ignite anything threatening though, bar an Ashcroft header from a corner which was saved low by Sinclair at his left-hand post.
Wilson went all in, as Stanway and Reading were replaced by Gary Mackay-Steven and Ts’oanelo Lets’osa, with Thistle sacrificing some defensive solidity in the hope of an equaliser.
On 78 minutes, the Jags were presented with a decent chance, winning a free-kick on the edge of the St. Mirren box. Chalmers went for it with a powerful shot at goal, only denied by a sensational save from Sinclair, who nudged it over the bar.
Wilson drained the well of substitutes, bringing on Kyle Turner for Crawford with eight minutes to go. Despite this, the game fizzled out with both sides tiring in the heat at the end of a high-energy encounter.
Thistle entered last chance saloon, given a free kick within shooting range as the five minutes of stoppage time ticked over. Kyle Turner stepped up to the plate, as Jags fans watched from behind their fingers. The midfielder’s set piece failed to breach the Buddies’ wall, before referee Nick Walsh called time on the game as The Jags were consigned to yet another season in the second tier, defeated 2-1 on aggregate.
Full-time – St Mirren 1 Partick Thistle 0
Teams
St. Mirren: Ross Sinclair; Miguel Freckleton, Alex Gogic, Marcus Fraser; Jacob Devaney, Scott Tanser, Jayden Richardson (Richard King, 85’), Allan Campbell (Mark O’Hara, 62’), Killian Phillips (Dan Nlundulu, 90’); Jake Young (Roland Idowu, 62’), Mikael Mandron.
Unused Substitutes: Grant Tamosevicius; Conor McMenamin, Jalmaro Calvin, Luke Douglas, Thomas Falconer.
Partick Thistle: Josh Clarke; Paddy Reading (Gary Mackay-Steven, 75’), Lee Ashcroft, Cale Loughrey, Ben McPherson (Cammy Logan, HT); Luke McBeth (Logan Chalmers, 68’), Robbie Crawford (Kyle Turner, 83’), Ben Stanway (Ts’oanelo Lets’osa, 75’), Aidan Fitzpatrick; Alex Samuel, Tony Watt.
Unused Substitutes: Lewis Budinauckas; Matthew Falconer, Liam Dolan.
Referee: Nick Walsh
Attendance: 7,472
