Tuesday 16th July, 2019 at 12:51pm
Ramsden’s Cup (2nd Round)
Tuesday 14th August 2012
Quuen’s Park 4-5 Partick Thistle
Believe it or not, the planned 7:30 kick-off was delayed until 7:45 to let the crowd in! They must have known something we didn’t, because this turned out to be a super match deserving of something nearer to a capacity crowd rather than the 1500-2000 dotted around the national stadium.
We got off to a bad start, losing a goal to Lawrence Shankland after 20 minutes. Yes, the same player who plagued the life out of us on a couple of occasions last season. Thistle hit back and Aaron Sinclair, later to become Taylor-Sinclair, equalised on 35 minutes, with Christie Elliott putting us ahead five minutes later. Longworth levelled ten minutes into the second half, but Chris Erskine restored our lead with 65 minutes on the clock. It was thrill-a-minute end-to-end stuff, exciting attackers against leaky defences.
Queen’s Park scored on 75 and 85 minutes to put them 4-3 up, but Thistle weren’t finished by any means and they came storming forward. Stuart Bannigan bagged an equaliser with two minutes left and then in the final minute that man Chris Erskine banged in the winner. What a game it had been!
The full Thistle team was as follows:- Ryan Scully, Stephen O’Donnell, Aaron Sinclair, Paul Paton, Aaron Muirhead, Conrad Balatoni, James Craigen, Sean Welsh, Mark McGuigan, Christie Elliott, Stuart Bannigan.
Match winner Chris Erskine was not in the starting line-up but he replaced the injured Sean Welsh after just seven minutes.
For the fashion-conscious, Thistle wore mauve jersey with black shorts.
Of course we went all the way to the final, losing the penalty shoot-out to Queen of the South, very controversially, I must say. Speaking through a mouthful of sour grapes, Thistle should have won the Ramsden’s Cup, but faced outrageous gamesmanship by the opposition goalkeeper which went unpunished by weak refereeing. Anyway, that’s my unbiased view of what happened in the final. Let’s prefer to remember with pleasure hat thrilling second round tie.
Robert R.
