Partick Thistle's home form gets stuck in the sand against Cowdenbeath

Mar 21 2011

Partick Thistle 0 Cowdenbeath 1

FIRHILL resembled a beach and unfortunately for Thistle it was Cowdenbeath who had brought their bucket and spade as they continue to dig themselves out of first division trouble.

The state of the pitch was the major talking point in this dour encounter as the Firhill ground staff worked overtime to repair the damage caused by Friday night's Magners League rugby.

When Glasgow Warriors play the pitch takes a hammering. The only repair work which can be done at such short notice is to dump barrowloads of sand on the surface - but this makes pretty football as likely as a full house at Firhill these days.

At least the previous evening was to produce a home win as Warriors dumped Italians Treviso 25-17.

There was to be no such luck for Thistle as, not for the first time this season, they struggled to open up Jimmy Nicholl's resolute Cowdenbeath side and lost their six-month unbeaten home league record into the bargain.

The Jags were first to threaten when Kris Doolan fired over the bar after a Paddy Boyle shot had been blocked for a corner.

Ryan McGowan then had a tame header easily saved by visiting keeper David Hay.

Marting Grehan should have fired the Jags into the lead on 37 minutes when he found himself in a good position just 10 yards from goal. But, to the frustration of the home support, the former Stirling Albion man's weak effort failed to trouble Hay.

'Beath had managed only one serious effort of note in the entire first period, when Greig Stewart finished a swift counter-attack with a rasping effort from the edge of the box but Scott Fox was equal to the shot and touched it over the bar.

However, the Fifers didn't take long to find the net after the break. Just five minutes to be exact although the Jags thought they should have had a penalty just moments earlier when Paul Paton was tripped in the box.

Cowden keeper Hay started the move which was to provide the only goal with a simple punt up the park and Stewart out-muscled John Robertson to shoot low beyond Fox.

Jags boss Ian McCall threw on subs Iain Flannigan, Shaun Fraser and Jamie Campbell in the next 10 minutes in a bid to spark his side to life.

But they struggled to create anything of note on the bobbly pitch - not that that was an excuse as Cowden continued to look dangerous in attack.

Indeed Kyle Miller could have extendced his side's lead after 77 minutes but saw his shot blocked.

Substitute Fraser could have wrestled a point for the jags in injury time when he pounced in a goalmouth scramble but his shot was blocked.

And, to be honest, it would have been harsh on the determined visitors had they lost three valuable points so late in the match.

Jags boss McCall said: "We seem to struggle against the bottom teams but good luck to Cowdenbeath.

"Jimmy got their tactics spot on - his team defended in numbers and hit us on the counter attack."