Friday 18th October, 2019 at 10:16am
Ladbrokes Premiership (post-split)
12th May 2018
Dundee 0 Partick Thistle 1
Following up on a pretty dismal first-half of the 2017/18 season, Thistle had staged a wee bit of a recovery, but still found themselves in the bottom six. After the featured match, which produced a very satisfactory result in itself, we faced Livingston in the dreaded play-off and we all know what happened then. Results in the post-split period put the Jags in a situation where we had to participate in one of those nerve-jangling play-off double-headers. Our opponents, as I’ve said, would be from the Tony Macaroni Arena, with the first leg being played away from home.
Reverting back to the match in Dundee, we fielded the following team:- Tomas Cerny, Paul McGinn (must make sure I have the right first name with so many McGinns making their mark in senior football), Danny Devine, Baily Cargill, Christie Elliott, Ryan Edwards, Martin Woods, Adam Barton, Stevie Lawless, Conor Sammon, Miles Storey.
This game was played not so long ago. Pause for a moment to reflect. How many of the 11 Thistle starters are still at Firhill? – Precisely NONE. Long gone are the days when players (admittedly a small number) could amass 400 plus appearances at the same club. How times have changed!
There was no scoring in the first half. However, this would change. Kris Doolan, who was a substitute, replaced Ryan Edwards after 59 minutes and took only five minutes to find the net. Over the years I have come to believe, no matter how indifferently we were playing that as long as goal-machine, Kris, was on the field, we had a chance and once again Kris came up trumps. The other Thistle substitutes were Ryan Scully, Mustapha Dumbuya, Chris Erskine, James Penrice, Blair Spittal and Abdul Osman. I shall ask the same question. How many of those players are still at Firhill? It’s a different answer this time – ONE. Yes, James Penrice.
For those interested, the only goal of the game was scored at the top end of Dens, away from the tunnel.
The match programme contains an interesting ‘flashback’ article featuring a Dundee versus Thistle match from 13th December 1947, yes 1947. Not many of you would have been in attendance at the 2-2 draw, but let’s have a look back at the team selection just the same.
Here it is:- Bobby Henderson, Jimmy McGowan, Jackie Husband, Willie Hewitt, Adam Forsyth, Maurice Candlin, Tommy Wright, Archie McCallum, Davie Mathie, Kenny Chisholm, Alex Glover, and of course, there were no substitutes.
The crowd was recorded as 22,000. Post-war boom, I guess.
Robert R.
