| As suspected, Goran Stanic missed the trip to Firhill due to injury and Derek McInnes again opted to play Steven Anderson – free of the suspension which kept him out of the Paisley cup tie - in the left back role.
A first glimpse of the Firhill playing surface didn’t augur well for the quality of football which might be possible and sadly that proved to be the dominant factor of what proved to be a dreadful spectacle of a game.
The match started brightly enough and with two minutes on the clock Steven Anderson won a free kick 22 yards from goal and Saints carried out a training ground move that wrong-footed the home side and saw Rocco Quinn fire in an effort which Thistle keeper Tuffey had to push away.
The Firhill pitch – also home to Glasgow Warriors rugby – was heavily sanded and cut up badly virtually from the pre-match warm-up and what followed was a poor advertisement for First Division football.
The 20th minute free kick awarded after an inadvertent Peter MacDonald handball 30 yards from goal saw the Thistle set play come to nothing and minutes later Mark Roberts failed to get a proper connection on a header from another dead ball.
Five minutes before the interval Alan Main was called into action for the first time when he had to push away a Stevie Murray drive and there was a bit of panic in the Perth rearguard in the few seconds that followed.
The 43rd minute saw Kevin Rutkiewicz booked for dissent and then Rocco Quinn had to be replaced by Kevin Moon – the recent goal hero clutching his hamstring as he left the field of play. Half-time arrived with the game goalless and surely the least number of noteworthy incidents in any 45 minutes of football this season.
A Peter MacDonald snapshot just a minute after the re-start signalled the start of a better period of play for Saints and Roberts had to clear a Kevin Moon header from a Liam Craig corner kick just a yard from goal.
It was much better from Saints in this opening 10 minutes of the second half and after Steven Milne had seen his 15 yard shot charged down for a corner, MacDonald sent a cushioned side foot effort from a Liam Craig cross wide of goal.
Paul Sheerin replaced Steven Anderson the hour mark and it wasn’t long before Barry Wilson took over from Peter MacDonald but the early promise of the second half from Saints had evaporated and the playing surface combined with referee David Somers determination to clamp down on any sort of physical challenge by either set of players saw the game return to a dour battle of misplaced passes and wasted set-piece chances.
To be fair to Partick Thistle the final 25 minutes of the game saw them come close to grabbing a goal on three separate occasions.
After Mark Roberts had sent a wicked effort dipping just over Alan Main’s cross bar in 77 minutes, David Rowson then struck the post and Gary Harkins did likewise just as the clock ticked onto 90 minutes.
However, in between those woodwork scares Saints had the best chance of the game to grab the three points. One minute remained on the clock when Kevin Rutkiewicz – playing the final five minutes of the match in a forward role - got his head to a Craig free kick, the ball fell into the path of Steven Milne who set up Andy Jackson but the young striker – so reliable all season – flashed his effort across goal and wide of the far post. Jackson had minutes earlier seen his appeals for a penalty kick turned away by Somers.
And so ended a very poor game of football and with it any realistic hope Saints had of still making it a three-way chase for the league flag.
Neither side played particularly well and with the playing surface the dominant factor in the game, it was the paying supporters of both clubs who were the losers.
Website Man of the Match: A difficult day for anyone to shine but ALLAN McMANUS is back to his dominant best in the heart of defence and was steady throughout the afternoon.
St Johnstone: Main, Irvine, Anderson (Sheerin), Morris, Rutkiewicz, McManus, Quinn (Moon), Craig, Jackson, Milne, MacDonald (Wilson).
Subs Not Used: James, Cuthbert.
Partick Thistle: Tuffey, Storey (Kinniburgh), Robertson, Archibald, Twaddle, McKeown, Rowson, Harkins, Murray (Donnelly), Gray (McKinlay), Roberts.
Subs Not Used: Hinchcliffe, McStay.
Att: 2,309
Liam Craig jousts for possession |
Andy Jackson fires wide of goal when well placed in the dying moments of the game |
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