The Thistle Archive

Media report

McGinlay punishes Thistle frailties… TWO-GOAL Pat McGinlay steered Hibernian to a comfortable win, and the Easter Road club have also found a promising central defender in youngster Steven Tweed. Yet again Partick were left considering the frailties of their defence and the loss of yet two more important home points. As they enter a period of meeting the top clubs, beginning with Celtic on Saturday, they must be viewing that with apprehension. But last night’s 90 minutes belonged to McGinlay, and the only black note for him was his first-half booking for hand-ball. But such are the inconsistencies of refereeing that Partick striker Gerry Britton, who punched the ball against the bar in the second half, was not shown the yellow card.

Manager John Lambie, who had been disgusted by Thistle’s defensive play on Saturday, made six changes and also switched Julian Broddle from the left wing to left back in the hope of strengthening his line-up, but again he saw those defensive frailties being exposed. Hibs could easily have gone ahead in 12 minutes when keeper Craig Nelson dropped a high cross from the left but just as Keith Wright prepared to knock the ball over the line, the keeper palmed it away to safety. Partick endeavoured in the outfield but they were let down in 41 minutes when Hibs did go into the lead. A neat through ball found Wright alert and, whereas the home defence remained static, he chased almost to the bye-line before crossing for McGinlay to guide it into the net.

Partick were unfortunate to lose Grant Tierney, who was carried off five minutes into the second period after a head clash with Graham Mitchell, and his absence further weakened that suspect defence. Hibs went two ahead in 61 minutes and again the scorer was McGinlay, who had worked so hard throughout for them. This time he strode through from midfield to take a Mickey Weir ball in his stride before finding the net for his tenth goal of the season. Just three minutes later, Hibs punished another defensive mistake when Joe Tortolano picked up a bad attempted clearance by Bobby Law. The midfielder progressed to the edge of the area before parting to Weir, who fired in the third.

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