The Thistle Archive

Media report

ONCE again the referee’s intervention, and once more not for the good, threatened to decide the outcome. But Partick Thistle, having gone behind to a penalty that wasn’t and as a result of their own confused defending, came back to keep their slight but crucial advantage over the other next most seriously threatened relegation contenders. There was little skill, particularly in the second half when Thistle charged forward in droves, but their persistence and spirit were admirable and they levelled it, entirely predictably, through an own goal. It was harsh on Raith who, to their credit and when there was nothing in it for them, continued to play their inventive football.

The opening minutes could hardly have been more dramatic or unfair. The grass at Firhill was cut in a huge bull’s eye pattern and a long ball out of the right defence found Ally Graham on an outer circle of it, and on the edge of the Thistle box. His head-flick found Colin Cameron to his left. He tried to chip the ball round Gregg Watson to make room for a shot but the ball slapped the chest of the defender who made no aggressive motion towards it. Referee Hugh Dallas, behind the player, appeared to be in no position to judge but gave a penalty anyway, amazing everyone in the ground and angering the majority. Count Peter Hetherston in the minority, then. He calmly put the kick away. If the first goal seemed unjust, the second was suicidally created. Thistle had drawn the hapless Watson back as a free man behind the two main central defenders and a long Jason Rowbotham clearance came to earth in no -man’s land around 30 yards out. Watson trotted for it and so too did goalkeeper Craig Nelson. The two met on the edge of the box and stumbled into each other, leaving the ball and net undefended and giving Cameron the easiest of scoring chances. Thistle, however, pulled a goal back in the 34th minute. Chic Charnley took an inswinging corner on the right, Isaac English achieved the faintest of touches and, although there was a suspicion that a Raith defender had the final touch, a joyous English claimed it.

Thistle had nowhere to go but forward in the second half with the midfield men dragooned as additional front- line troops. It was route one, damnation-or-salvation stuff with holes opening everywhere, the home side trusting that, in their cavalier charges, they would not let Raith slip through another one. Fortune, for once, favoured them midway through the second half after a Nelson fluff at a near-post cross had threatened to put the game, and perhaps the division, beyond them. David Byrne took the ball up the right touchline and had a weak cross blocked before recovering to move inside and find Albert Craig. His shot appeared to be covered by goalkeeper Scott Thomson, but was deflected high into his own net by Shaun Dennis’ flailing foot.

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