TWO games, two wins and two clean-sheets for Ian McCall's Partick Thistle, who will be buoyed in knowing they sit joint-top without having found anything like top gear yet. Only a solitary piece of top-class finishing separated these teams with Airdr
ie no doubt feeling more than a little hard done-by.
Maybe it was the rigours of midweek extra time catching up with both teams, but the first half was an insipid affair with misplaced passes littering play. New Diamonds striker, Paul Di Giacomo, came closest with a thumping drive from 18 yards, which flashed by Jon Tuffey in the Thistle goal only to strike the Shyberry woodwork.
Steven McDougall was next to bare teeth for the home team and the winger should have done better than lash his shot over. Thistle were restricted to long-range efforts from Scott Chaplain and Gary Harkins against a home defence anchored well by young Bobby Donnelly.
Kenny Black's newly promoted team continued to be the more impressive after the break, and only Simon Lynch will know how he managed to miss the target from six yards.
Having weathered the storm, Thistle eventually began to exert some authority in midfield and unlike their hosts they had in Damon Gray, on loan from Hibs, someone capable of taking a chance. The little striker had already been denied with a close-range header before he collected a pass from Paul Paton and picked his spot in the back of Stephen Robertson's net to win the points.
The full article contains 268 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
