Partick Thistle will be left wondering how they did not manage to claim all three points at home to Queen’s Park as Mark Wilson’s men were made to settle for a draw in Maryhill.
In what was a one-sided contest at Firhill, Thistle subjected the Spiders defence to wave after wave of attack as they heaped pressure on their opponents, but the lack of a clinical edge in front of goal ultimately proved costly.
Wilson stuck to his guns, naming the same starting XI that drew 1-1 away at Inverness last time out, with Lee Ashcroft and Euan Henderson both missing through injury. There was a solitary change on the bench however, with Gary Mackay-Steven dropping out the matchday squad – presumably for picking up a knock – and youngster Steven Docherty taking the winger’s place on the bench.
It was a fairly lowkey start to proceedings, although Alex Samuel really should have made it 1-0 with Thistle’s first real opportunity of note with five minutes on the clock. Ben McPherson did well to fashion some space down the right and dart menacingly into the box before squaring it to his team-mate in the middle of the goal and around eight yards out. Somehow, though, the Welshman dragged his shot wide of the target.
Thistle were patient as the contest got underway, preferring to move the ball around and waiting for the right pass to appear, rather than attempting to force the issue. It wasn’t long before they started to control possession; the only question was how they would go about breaking down their opponents.
The home fans got their answer when the next opportunity arose. It was a wonderful, free-flowing move with one-touch passing. It started when the ball was worked out to Aidan Fitzpatrick on the left, with the winger playing a one-two with Ben Stanway as he cut inside. A one-two with Lets’osa was next up as Fitzpatrick continued to barrel towards goal before he then shifted it out to McPherson on the overlap, but the full-back was unable to hit the target. Had the ball found the back of the net, the Championship’s goal of the season competition would have already been wrapped up on matchday four.
The Jags soon started to turn the screw as the game was played increasingly on the edge of the Spiders’ box. Intricacy was the order of the day as Thistle tried to play their way through the opposition with neat little passes around the dee and while they hadn’t quite resulted in an opener, it looked like an approach that would pay off sooner rather than later.
Referee Calum Scott was not endearing himself to the locals, and the home crowd were not shy in letting the official know their feelings on his performance. A strange booking for Ts’oanelo Lets’osa and a penalty shout for the Jags that resulted in a Queen’s Park free-kick provoked the fans’ wrath, and the loudest cheer of the afternoon arrived when the Jags were awarded a free-kick in a promising position shortly before the half-hour mark. Stanway hit it, but the shot was tame and easily held by QP keeper Jack Wills.
As has often been the case over the past year or so, Fitzpatrick looked like Thistle’s most likely route to goal. He was his usual self, driving down the left wing and cutting the ball back across the face of goal, but there had been no takers thus far. Samuel, too, had started brightly and was winning more than his fair share of attacking duels.
Thistle certainly had the upper hand as the game approached the break, but they did not have the goal their efforts deserved. It almost arrived in spectacular fashion when a cross was played into Lets’osa with his back to goal, and the midfielder’s bicycle whizzed over the bar. The technique was impressive, but the shot had just a little too much on it.
Stanway was next to have a go, steering a close-range header into the arms of Wills a few minutes before half-time, before McPherson came within inches of breaking the deadlock with a powerful drive that crashed off the underside of the bar. That would be as close as Thistle got before the players made their way back to their respective changing rooms.
It came as no surprise that the Thistle coaching staff opted against any changes at the interval, and the team pretty much picked up where they left off. The first opportunity of the second half arrived after a few minutes when Cale Loughery got on the end of a Paddy Reading cross and bulleted a header at goal, but Wills was equal to it.
A few minutes later and Seb Drozd came close to an excellent opener against his former club. Receiving the ball on the right, he twisted his marker Magnus Mackenzie this way and that before leaving the defender on his backside. He drilled a shot at goal, but it whistled just wide of the far post. Fitzpatrick was next up, getting on the end of a whipped McPherson cross, but he was closed down before he could get his shot away.
Wilson turned to his bench as the contest neared the hour-mark, introducing Tony Watt at the expense of Lets’osa and going with two up top in a bid to inject some more attacking impetus into his team.
Thistle were really knocking on the door now. An excellent delivery from a Fitzpatrick free-kick picked out Dan O’Reilly and the captain connected well with it, only for Wills to pull off a superb reaction stop.
The one-way traffic would not abate – the game was being played almost exclusively in the visitors’ half at this stage – but the Spiders were proving themselves to be a tricky nut to crack. A couple more changes in midfield soon followed, with Ben Dempsey and Robbie Crawford coming on for Oisin Smyth and Stanway for the final 20 minutes or so.
Wills was forced into action again to tip a Watt header from a corner wide of the post before Wilson made his final substitution as Fitzpatrick made way for Ethan Ingram with 10 minutes of regulation time remaining.
Thistle were keeping up the pressure, but the opportunities were not arriving quite as regularly now. Some excellent play from Watt down the right saw the striker skip past two defenders and attempt to find the far corner, only to narrowly miss the target.
There would be one last real opportunity of note as the game threatened to peter out as it entered stoppage time, and it was perhaps the most glorious of the lot. A dangerous low ball was whipped into the six-yard box where Crawford was waiting, but the midfielder somehow cleared the bar from only a few yards out.
It was an afternoon where Thistle huffed and puffed, but ultimately could not break the QP door down.