Jags feeling the heat as Rooney keeps his cool
ON a night when thick snow swirled around an arctic Pittodrie, a flamehaired forward melted Partick Thistle’s stubborn resistance.
adam Rooney’s 61st-minute winner for aberdeen was enough to send alan archibald’s men spinning chillingly back to the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.
For Dons boss Derek McInnes, this result ensured that Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Celtic Park was not the start of a bleak mid-winter period.
In finally claiming these three points, the Dons approach the end of 2017 with four wins in their last five matches and have cut the gap on leaders Celtic to eight points.
But these remain deeply worrying times for Thistle, who have not won on the road in the league since a trip to Dens Park in March.
Behind Ross County on goal difference, the men from Maryhill now face a six-pointer against their Highland rivals in Glasgow on Saturday.
McInnes had made three changes from the side that saw their good run end by losing in Glasgow on Saturday to Brendan Rodgers’ reigning champions.
Back came fit-again Scott McKenna, Shay Logan and on-loan winger Ryan Christie. Out dropped Dom Ball, Kari arnason, and Mark Reynolds.
Struggling Thistle were boosted after Saturday’s 1-0 home triumph over Hamilton that lifted them — temporarily, as it turned out — off the foot of the table at County’s expense.
archibald brought back Jordan Turnbull, Conor Sammon and andy McCarthy for Martin Woods, Kris Doolan and Chris Erskine.
But the Thistle boss has not had his injury troubles to seek this season, with abdul Osman, Stuart Bannigan, Christie Elliott, Callum Booth and Mustapha Dumbuya all sidelined for the long term.
and last night he was restricted to naming a five-man bench in the Granite City. Unsurprisingly, given how cold it was in the north east, this match took a long time to warm up.
aberdeen came the closest to opening the scoring after a fine defence-splitting pass from Kenny McLean set Logan scampering down the right flank.
The defender’s cutback was begging to be tucked into the empty net, but Thistle’s Niall Keown showed good awareness to make an heroic block.
Up at the other end, Sammon used good close control to shield the ball before shooting on the turn. But his effort was weak and easily gathered by Joe Lewis.
aberdeen’s on-loan Birmingham City attacker Greg Stewart then saw a dangerous effort saved by Tomas Cerny.
Moments later, Thistle’s adam Barton really should have done better than send a free header wide after Paul McGinn’s terrific delivery from the left flank.
The closest we got to a breakthrough was when Rooney hacked the ball into the roof of the net from close range after Stewart’s corner had dropped nicely at the edge of the six-yard box. During his attempt, the Irishman had caught Danny Devine in the face with his studs and referee Euan anderson signalled for a foul. Rooney’s moment would eventually come.
First, Christie tried his best to end a disappointing first half on a high but, after a fine jinking run, his clipped shot soared well wide of Cerny’s post.
The on-loan attacker thought he had scored at the start of the second half when he lofted the ball over Cerny from 20 yards out only for Ryan Edwards to get back and clear off the line.
In a bid to add bite to his attack, archibald sent on Miles Storey for Steven Lawless. The ex-Dons striker’s every touch was jeered by the home fans but he could not get them back by finding the net.
By now, the action was all at the other end and the lively Stewart saw a shot turned round for a corner by Cerny.
The inevitable goal came when Christie danced down the right and set the ball up for Rooney to do his predatory best, ramming the ball home from close range.
Thistle tried valiantly to get back into the game, with captain Devine heading just over the bar.
Then it was the end of the night for Gary Mackay-Steven, who was making his closest brush with hypothermia since being fished out of the River Kelvin back in august.
The winger was replaced by Scott Wright but it was the excellent Stewart who came closest to adding a second for aberdeen, his curling effort towards the top corner clawed away by Cerny.
There was precious little for the 196 shivering souls who travelled north from Glasgow to cheer in the remainder of the game.
The league lowest scorers and in possession of the Scottish Premiership’s most porous defence, reinforcements are desperately needed or a deeply unhappy new year beckons for Thistle.