The Thistle Archive

St Johnstone won their first three Scottish Premiership games for the first time as Partick Thistle lost at McDiarmid Park. Michael O'Halloran struck to give Saints a half-time lead. Joe Shaughnessy and Steven MacLean both had efforts saved for the hosts in the first half. Niall Keown's long-range strike for Thistle was saved by Alan Mannus and the Jags remain without a point in the top flight so far this season. Saints may have lost to Thistle in a League Cup tie in Perth just 11 days previously but they showed no signs of a hangover as they started the match sharply. Lining up in 4-1-4-1 formation they sought to get O'Halloran involved as much as possible while Thistle gave a debut to new striker Miles Storey.

The first chance of the game came with Shaughnessy's shot saved well by Tomas Cerny. At the other end, Steven Anderson was alert to thwart Ryan Edwards. Mannus could only turn away a low Chris Erskine shot, the Thistle player denied his 50th goal for the club, then Anderson prevented Edwards from scoring with a timely interception. It was a game that needed a spark and it came when Anderson's measured pass was read perfectly by the alert O'Halloran, who shot across the body of Cerny from the edge of the box and clipped the ball home via the post. Energised by the goal it was almost 2-0 just two minutes later. David Wotherspoon and O'Halloran combined to set up Steven MacLean, who quickly controlled and shot from eight yards only to be denied by a confident reaction save by Cerny.

St Johnstone looked assured at the start of the second half and MacLean saw his early shot deflected wide after good work by Stefan Scougall. Alan Archibald had to replace Callum Booth with Milan Nitriansky after the left-back was injured in a collision with Mannus but it was the manager's introduction of Kris Doolan and new signing Connor Sammon in place of Edwards and Steven Lawless that altered his side's play as they sought an equaliser. Keown spotted Mannus off his line and the defender's 40-yard effort forced the goalkeeper to scuttle back and tip the ball over the top. Miles Storey wanted a penalty after his cross struck Murray Davidson's hand at the edge of the box, the ball clearly playing man, and referee Barry Cook booked the striker for his reaction.

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright:

It was a good team goal with a number of passes and a great through pass by Steven Anderson and a really cool finish by Michael and it was no more than we deserved. We worked this week on keeping the ball better and giving people better options on the ball and we did that well in the first half. We are still actually the last team to beat [next week's opponents Celtic] domestically albeit under a different manager. At the start of the season if you said that we were going to Celtic for a top of the table clash I'd have taken it.

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald:

In the first half St Johnstone were the better side. We didn't look at it in the opening 15 minutes but we got better as the game went on. We lost a poor goal defensively. You don't push the panic button but we've not won any and it's bitterly disappointing but it's back to work this week.

bbc.com

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