McCall left to rue missed chances as Thistle settle for stalemate

Partick Thistle Forfar Athletic

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IT took only 70 seconds for Thistle to find themselves trailing against Airdrie on Saturday so within that context, the fact that they managed to last a whole minute-and-a-half last night with their clean sheet intact represented a step in the right direction.

The Jags roared back from that setback at the weekend to seal a 4-2 win but Ian McCall’s men were unable to repeat the trick against Forfar as their promotion bid hit a sizeable snag.

“It wasn’t a good start,” the Thistle boss conceded. “But credit to Forfar, they deserved the draw even though we missed a lot of chances.

“You see the nature of the league tonight with Falkirk coming back against Dumbarton but it’s two points dropped for us. There’s no doubt about that.

“I didn’t want to make three changes at half-time but I felt I had to because we were so open. Forfar were very gung-ho, fair play to them. They were always dangerous on the counter-attack but we’re really, really disappointed to only take a point from the game.”

With less than two minutes played, the visitors had taken an unlikely lead when Grant Anderson’s cross was swept home with aplomb by Scott Fenwick on the half-volley. Jamie Sneddon, preferred to Kieran Wright between the sticks, got a hand to it but couldn’t prevent the ball trundling in.

It wouldn’t last long, though. The Jags cranked up the pressure, coming within inches of levelling the scores when Steven Bell glanced Joe Cardle’s corner onto the bar. Connor Murray collected the ball out on the right in the aftermath, demonstrating fabulous technique to shimmy past his man and send a curling effort from the edge of the area crashing off the inside of the post and across the line.

When Fenwick scored again just before half-time – the striker diverted a powerfully struck shot from the edge of the box with a well-placed boot – it was a just reward for the away side’s exertions.

Darren Brownlie, Shea Gordon and Brian Graham were introduced at the break as Thistle switched to a more physical approach but still, they laboured all over the park. Forfar sat deep, striking their opponents on the counter, and Scott Shephard should have made it three when he outstripped the home defence but the pacy striker was unable to poke the ball home.

Then, against the run of play, a lifeline for the hosts arrived as Graham turned the ball in from close range and briefly sparked his side back into life. Another blow soon followed when Chris Erskine, brought on eight minutes previously, hobbled off.

There was late drama as Forfar’s Callum Moore rattled the underside of the bar at one end and Gordon shanked a half-volley on the turn at the other, but the teams had to ultimately settle for a share of the spoils.