Match Report
After a miserable month of October Thistle started November with a home fixture against league leaders Queen of the South. In terms of personnel their was only one change from the side that went down to defeat at St Johnstone. Simon Storey's red card meant that he had an enforced absence. Simon Donnelly an unused sub at McDiarmid Park started this fixture. Personnel changes may have been kept to a minimum but Storey's enforced absence and Marc Twaddle's continuing injury problems meant a tinkering of the players at the manager's disposal. The 3-5-2 formation remained in place but Kevin McKinlay filled in the role that Storey had occupied against St Johnstone. John Robertson, Willie Kinniburgh and Ian Maxwell formed a three man central defensive triumvirate. After a quiet opening ten minutes or so Queen of the South were the first side to have a half chance of a goal. A Jamie McQuilken corner found the head of former Thistle loan player Craig Sives but his header was too high. The reaction of the Queens player suggesting that he felt that he should have done a little better. In the 19th minute an excellent cross field pass from Paul Paton picked out Simon Donnelly and while Donnelly was able to test Bell in the Queens goal his shot was just a little too straight. Thistle, if not exactly taking a grip of proceedings were starting to dominate and on the half hour mark a fierce Liam Buchanan shot from the corner of the box took a deflection on the way over the bar. Liam Buchanan was posing the visiting defence problems and in the 39th minute he was able to get his head to a Simon Donnelly cross but he was always stretching to reach the ball and as a result was unable to direct his header towards goal. It was, however, further sign of reason to be optimistic and a surging Gary Harkins run, shortly after being harshly booked for diving, raised hopes but his final pass was just a little too far in front of Liam Buchanan. Queens forays forward were becoming rarer but a danger still lurked and Stephen Dobbie caused anxiety levels in the home defence to rise before his cross come shot drifted across the face of goal. In first half injury time Thistle edged in front. Stephen McKeown picked up a pass from Paul Paton and his cross right across the six yard box was met by Kevin McKinlay who from close range was able to bundle the ball over the line despite the best efforts of Bell to keep the ball out. The opening twenty minutes of the second half belonged almost exclusively to Queen of the South with the Thistle defence very much on the back foot. For all their pressure though Queens were struggling to create a clear cut goal scoring opportunity while Thistle, with Jonny Tuffey's quick distribution of the ball a feature, a danger on the counter attack. In the 69th minute Thistle were close to a second goal. A neat Simon Donnelly pass found Stephen McKeown but his low shot from a tight angle was saved by Cameron Bell. It had been a difficult chance but a chance nonetheless and Thistle were nearly made to pay for not taking the opportunity. As Thistle struggled to clear the ball from inside their own penalty box the ball dropped to Sean O'Connor who fortunately, from a Thistle point of view, snatched at his shot with the result that his shot went high over the bar. As the Thistle fans started to give voice to their support a Gary Harkins header from a Stephen McKeown cross drifted wide of goal. With 13 minutes of the game remaining Thistle made their first change of the afternoon with Scott Chaplain coming on in place of an apparently injured Willie Kinniburgh a substitution that involved a certain amount of reorganisation of the Thistle set up. Thistle nerves could have been eased in the 80th minute. Liam Buchanan was able to latch onto a ball knocked forward and even though he had never stopped running all afternoon he had the ene
rgy to get behind the Queens defence. His shot though was pushed out by Bell with Scott Chaplain sending the rebound just the wrong side of the post. With 8 minutes remaining Queen of the South were reduced to ten men. Liam Buchanan was able to gather a David Rowson pass and when he was tugged back by the previously booked Jim Thomson referee Charleston had little option but to send Thomson off. When Kevin McKinlay headed the free kick that followed into the back of the net the points looked to have been secured but the flag went up for offside to halt Thistle's celebration just as they were in full flow. Liam Buchanan too was inches away from a match clinching goal in the 85th minute, his effort from a Scott Chaplain cut back just a matter of inches wide. In the 87th minute the points were , finally, all but secured. Liam Buchanan was pulled to the ground and Thistle had a penalty. Gary Harkins was the man trusted with the kick and he made an immaculate job of converting it. Seconds after being announced as the match sponsor's Man of the Match Liam Buchanan was replaced by Damon Gray and received a standing ovation for an all energy performance.
