Media report

Jane Lewis, 15-Sep-2017, bbc.com

Stand-in captain Graham Dorrans rescued a point for Rangers against 10-man Partick Thistle in a pulsating match. Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos cracked home his eighth of the season to give Rangers a half-time lead. But a deflected, fizzing Blair Spittal free-kick and a Chris Erskine goal put the hosts in charge after 60 minutes. However, seven minutes later Erskine was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Morelos and paid the price when Dorrans curled in the equaliser.

Thistle began lively as they sought their first win over the Ibrox club in 24 years, but Rangers knew that a high-scoring victory would move them to the top of the Scottish Premiership. However, after 12 minutes they lost their captain Lee Wallace when he pulled up after his shot at goal was blocked. He was replaced by Declan John, who made his debut. Daniel Candeias and Morelos looked dangerous on the attack and it was the latter who broke the deadlock after 19 minutes, quickly despatching Ryan Jack's pass with an angled shot. Patrick Thistle did not let their heads drop and, but for slack play and poor passing, they might have made more of their possession. Jack was in evident pain after a challenge by Ryan Edwards, which did not appear to be malicious, and the Rangers midfielder was able to continue after treatment.

Early in the second half, Fabio Cardoso senselessly climbed all over Miles Storey just outside the Rangers box. Up stepped Spittal to deliver a wonderful strike which took a slight deflection off defender Bruno Alves on its way into the net. Thistle looked the more confident team and Spittal was again involved as the Jags went in front. James Tavernier played him onside as the rest of the Rangers defence came out, giving him time and space to knock the ball across the face of the goal for Erskine to slide in and score. At this point, Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha had already substituted replacement captain Kenny Miller for Eduardo Herrera, with Dorrans taking on the armband, and following the goal he sent on Carlos Pena for Jack. The game swung in Rangers' favour when Erskine's studs-up challenge on Morelos reduced the Jags to 10 men with 25 minutes to go. Rangers pressed with the extra man and they were duly rewarded when, after benefiting from an incorrect throw-in decision, John played a lovely ball for Dorrans, who curled in a stunning shot to set up a frantic finale. Rangers tried to make their extra man count but efforts from Pena and Morelos were kept out by Ryan Scully as Thistle held firm for a draw. The sides meet again in the League Cup on Tuesday. On Friday night's evidence, the cup tie should be a cracker.

Reaction

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald told BBC Radio Scotland he was "delighted to hang on for the point":

Mentally, it was great to hold on because we have lost a few late goals, especially when we were down to 10 men. I was disappointed in our first-half performance but delighted with our response in the second. We played a back three tonight to shore up the back, but it was more to get Erskine and Spittal on the ball, but we really struggled to do that. We gave away possession constantly and it gave us a lot of problems. [re the sending off…] I think it is a red. He takes an extra touch and loses control of it and those ones always end up red cards. He's lunging to get it and it's a striker's challenge, so we've no complaints with it. Chris Erskine can't tackle and we know that, but there's no malice. Apologies for the tackle and we have no arguments with the red card. We can go and build on it as we made a game of it. We're delighted for our fans that we hung on. It will be a different type of game in the League Cup on Tuesday.

Speaking to his club's website, Pedro Caixinha reflected on what he viewed as "a lost two points":

It was two great strikes. But we were coming here to win. We made poor decisions in the last third. We tried to reorganise the team for the second half and we committed two mistakes defensively. We lost a duel we should not have lost on the first ball, it got to another duel on the edge of the box and we were at fault. We then opened the wall and that was it for the equaliser. After that, we didn't understand what was going on, we needed to calm down, and then from one bit of bad positioning from the full-back who was too far away and not closing inside, they did a perfect cross in-between the defensive line and the goalkeeper to score. We think we lost two points.

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Chris featured at #24 in our Top 25 countdown here on The Thistle Archive →

CHRIS ERSKINE

15.09.2017 Rangers [h] D2-2 (SPFL Premiership - game 6)
Blair Spittal (1-1, 50 mins); Chris Erskine (2-1, 60 mins)

As Thistle played their fifth successive season in the top-flight for the first time in nearly 40 years, only the lack of wins against the Old Firm was preventing the feel-good factor from soaring to the levels of the late 1970s.

There were some near misses, and it was especially incredible that a win against Rangers had not been forthcoming, with leading positions having been surrendered regularly.

Under the lights, we looked to be heading for a famous come-from-behind League victory on Friday, 15th September, 2017, as goals from Blair Spittal and Chris Erskine put Thistle 2-1 ahead, but eventually had to settle for a share of the spoils when our sometime Pelé was sent-off after a mis-timed tackle, and Rangers made the extra man count, coming back for the 2-2 draw.

Still, it was simply marvellous to see one of Firhill’s most-loved sons get his first goal against Rangers, ghosting in at the back post to tap in an excellent delivery from the on-fire Blair Spittal, putting Jags 2-1 up.

Normally, Squiddy would be running to the Jackie Husband stand to celebrate; this time his JHS-bound mission culminated in a big sssshhh to the antithesis of Jagskind.

It’s all about those magic moments.

Legend!

JAGS WIN A BATTLING POINT ON ARCHIE'S 200TH

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