 Media report |
The spoils were shared at Somerset Park on Saturday as Partick Thistle drew 0-0 with Ayr United in the William Hill Scottish Championship. It was a clash between second and third in the table, with Thistle aiming to extend the gap between them and the Honest Men to 14 points, whilst also keeping apace with league leaders St Johnstone in the battle for the title. There were four changes to the side that advanced in the Scottish Cup away to Forfar last weekend with Oisin Smyth and Ts’oanelo Lets’osa returning to the heart of the midfield in lieu of Scott Martin and Kyle Turner, while Logan Chalmers and Paddy Reading both returned to face their former club, stepping in for Stevie Lawless and Cammy Logan.
Having been put on the back foot from kick off in their last three encounters with the Jags, Scott Brown had his men racing out the traps from the start in an effort to try and beat us to our own game. Thistle were penned into their own half in the opening minutes, as Ayr launched an assault on the Thistle goalmouth, with keeper Josh Clarke forced into an excellent save on seven minutes from Ethan Walker’s powerful effort from inside the box. Mark Wilson’s men remained firm under the pressure, withstanding the early onslaught to keep things level. Thistle’s first chance came in the eleventh minute. Smyth unleashed a curling effort from outside the box, with Ayr defender Kevin Holt getting himself in front of the shot to ensure his former club didn’t take the lead. After that, the Jags started to feel their way into the game more, tempering Ayr’s bombardment as the game became more even. Ben Stanway was at the crux of Thistle’s positive moments, through the midway period, with two close chances in close succession. First, he collected a cross from McPherson, but his close-range effort is saved by Ayr keeper Liam Russell, thanks to a well-executed stop low to his right. Seconds later, Stanway had another chance, but the ball looked to deflect off Chalmers as it limply rolled towards Russell for him to easily scoop up.
Ayr continued to threaten, but were wasteful from set pieces, first working a short corner routine that saw them pass back to the taker in an offside position, before blasting a second corner over the heads of everyone in the box and straight out for a goal kick. Having stopped Smyth’s effort early on, Holt came to Ayr’s rescue again ten minutes before half time. Paddy Reading found Alex Samuel at the back post ready for the tap in, only for Holt to get himself onto the ball, clearing the danger. Luke McBeth then saved Thistle’s bacon at the other end moments later as Ayr burst forward on the counter. McBeth, deputising for the suspended Dan O’Reilly, extinguished the threat with a lovely clearing header. Fitzpatrick then gave Ayr a real fright, picking the ball up from an Ayr corner and blazing a trail along the length of the pitch and into the penalty area, beating his marker while doing so. However, his shot with the outside of his boot was snap trouble for Russell. Moments before the break, Reading teed up Logan Chalmers with a lovely 50-yard pass across the park. Chalmers was unable to keep his shot down, chipping it over the bar, as the two sides went down the tunnel goalless at half time. Thistle had the edge for the majority of the half, but lacked that touch of a clinical finish that could put them in front.
Ayr left back Liam Dick was replaced at half time by Nick McAllister, after Dick had received treatment for a head knock earlier in the half. The second half was a far more cagier affair, with a lot of the energy and intensity of the first half absent, as both sides failed to keep a hold of the ball and chances became thin on the ground. Walker was gifted a chance to open the scoring, when a pass from Jamie Murphy cut open the Jags back line and left him with the goal at his mercy, one-on-one with Clarke. However, Walker spurned this gilt-edged chance, blasting his shot wide as the Jags support in the Railway End breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Thistle then flung themselves up the other end immediately, with Fitzpatrick finding himself with the ball at the corner of the box and fire goalwards, only for Russell to palm the ball away from goal, onto the post to deny Fitzpatrick the opener. Ayr looked to pile on the pressure though, with a ghost of Thistle past, Anton Dowds coming off the bench to slip past the Thistle defence for another Ayr one-on-one. Dowds would get his shot on target this time, but Clarke was on hand to stop it with a superb save that kept Thistle in the game. Ayr started to peter out, as Thistle went on the search of a killer blow late on. The home side were forced to shut up shop in the face of multiple corners, throwing themselves in front of chances from Kyle Turner and Smyth, with Turner’s header being scythed off the line to deny an almost certain goal. Thistle turned the dial up to 11 in their attempt to break the deadlock, but Ayr’s defence remained steadfast in their determination, as the game finished goalless. The draw saw Thistle pass up the chance to go top of the league, as St Johnstone also drew 0-0 with Raith Rovers, ensuring the Jags remained level on points with the Saints.
 Reaction |
Partick Thistle assistant manager Alex Rae (speaking to
'The Thistle' 
):
I really enjoyed it. It was two teams trying to get all three points and obviously we’re disappointed not to get it. Sometimes you come away from these games and you think to yourself, ‘Oh, that wasn’t great’, but I think we created and we pushed enough to try and get the win, and we just couldn’t make the breakthrough. But you have to give respect to Ayr. They were dogged, they fought hard and in a couple of transitional moments we had to rely on our goalkeeper. It could be a really important point for us somewhere down the line. Our keeper made big saves, but the idea of bringing someone like Josh to the club is to kind of make these saves. So that when he’s relied upon, then we can actually kind of pull out two big saves like that. I think their keeper was excellent and he won man of the match, so it kind of says a lot. We continued to push as best we could.
Ayr United manager Scott Brown (speaking to Ayr United TV):
Our first half performance we were slow, we didn’t take enough care of the ball to be honest. I feel like the lads, in the first half, they felt a little bit under pressure and instead of being composed and calm on the ball they just fired it long. That’s no us. The second half performance was miles better. The calmness on the ball, the quality of Ben [Dempsey] getting on it and controlling the game. We got after them way more, the press was better, in the first half we gave them too much respect. I’m encouraged by the performance, I’m happy for the lads that we got another clean sheet, we just wanted that win. We defended when we had to defend but we had two clear cut chances, I think we had more clear-cut chances. We looked like the team that was in the ascendency right up to the end, I felt quietly comfortable in the game.
Dylan Watret
Nick McAllister
