Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Encouragement as Utd find a way to beat the Jags
DU N DE E Un ited’s w i n at P a r t i c k T h i s t l e to maintain thei r perfect start to the Championship season was not the stroll to success they’d enjoyed in their opening victory over Inverness a week earlier.
But, in many ways, that must have given the 1,000 Arabs who battled heavy traffic and awful weather to make the fan-unfriendly 7.05 kick-off at Firhill even more encouragement that this could finally be their team’s season.
Because, if the Tangerines are to secure a Premiership return at the fourth time of asking, and via automatic promotion being secured, not every win is going to come easy.
There will be games where not everything goes to plan, there are problems to be solved on the park and when strength of character will be j ust as i mportant as ability. And this was one of them. After starting well, United fell behind and then got bogged down in what’s now an old bad habit of keeping possession for long spells without threatening to convert it into scoring opportunities.
So much so that, by the interval, the fear was this was going to be another of those too frequent days of the past few years when the team would end up going nowhere on the park and, as a result, suffer what could prove a damaging defeat.
One like the last visit to face the Jags late last season when, needing a win to keep in touch with leaders Ross County, they fell to an unexpected defeat at the hands of a side that was battling against relegation.
At this point it should be said, despite taking just a point from their opening two fixtures, this looks a much better Thistle side than last term’s, so the task in turning the game round after Steven Saunders’ first-half opener was a considerable one.
Equally, United are an improved outfit and, in the lethal Lawrence Shankland, have a striker whose mere presence on the pitch will always give them hope.
He showed why by snatching an equaliser 10 minutes into the second half and at a time when his