Queen's Park Reserves 0, Partick Thistle Reserves 3
Monday 27th September 2010
On a clear crisp night at Lesser Hampden this evening the Thistle reserve team rounded off what had been a disappointing weekend on a positive note with a comfortable 3-0 win against Queen’s Park.
There was a youthful look to the Thistle line up with arguably the most encouraging aspect of the night the fact that the victorious Jags’ team included no fewer than 9 teenagers in the starting eleven. The experience coming in the shape of Paul Cairney and Martin Grehan.
It was Paul Cairney that fired Thistle into an early lead after just 8 minutes. A neat interchange of passes ending finishing with Cairney drilling a low shot into the net.
That was the only goal of the first half but in a 45 minutes of largely one way traffic Thistle’s excellent out field play helped create numerous chances.
In the 14th minute the home keeper produced a fine save to deny Martin Grehan who had turned sharply inside the Queen’s box while a Jamie Campbell shot in the 22nd minute didn’t quite have sufficient curve on it to take it into the net.
With half-time just a couple of minutes away a long range Shaun Fraser shot crept just the wrong side of the box.
At the other end a well marshalled Thistle defence was rarely troubled though Ryan Scully did produce a fine save with his legs after 16 minutes.
The second half followed a similar pattern to that of the first with Thistle, if anything, even more dominant.
After just three minutes of the second half Shaun Fraser was unfortunate to see his shot fly straight at the Queen’s keeper after the ball had been touched back into his path by Stuart Bannigan. Fraser was even more unlucky 11 minutes later when he saw his shot from 25 yards out crash back off the Queen’s keeper’s right hand post.
Thistle did finally get the second goal that their play merited in the 61st minute. A delightful through ball from Kyle Lochhead sent Martin Grehan clear on goal. Although Grehan saw his shot blocked the referee adjudged that he had been tugged back by a Queen’s defender and Thistle had a penalty. Paul Cairney was the man to take the kick and he slotted it home with the minimum of fuss for his second goal of the night.
The game was all but won at this point but Thistle continued to press in the search of further goals. Stuart Bannigan saw a shot deflected for a corner in the 79th minute after Kyle Lochhead and Martin Grehan has combined to set him up. From the corner that followed in took a fine reflex save from the Queen’s keeper to deny Conrad Balatoni a goal.
A third goal did arrive, however, with four minutes remaining. Stuart Bannigan’s corner was flicked on by Shaun Fraser to Martin Grehan who nodded home from about a yard out.
There was still time for one more Thistle chance but Shaun Fraser was denied what would have been a richly deserved goal when his shot following a Cairney assist was just too high.
There were good performances for Thistle right across the pitch. At the back the back four of McGeough, Baxter, Balatoni and Stevenson rarely put a foot wrong. In midfield Stuart Bannigan pulled the strings with a confident and assured performance and was ably assisted by the impressive Kyle Lochhead and Jamie Campbell. Up front Martin Grehan showed some nice touches and all Shaun Fraser’s performance lacked was a goal.
All in all it was a good night’s work which must have impressed the watching Thistle management and coaching staff.
Team: Scully, McGeough, Baxter (Pearce 77), Lochhead, Balatoni, Stevenson, Cairney, Campbell, Grehan, Bannigan, Fraser subs unused Shepherd, Sweeney, Burbridge.
