Thistle hang on to close gap on Dark Blues

PARTICK THISTLE 3 MOTHERWELL 2

Alan Archibald celebrated his 40th birthday with three points as his Partick Thistle side held on for an important Premiership victory.

Motherwell were in generous mood on Archibald’s big day as they shipped three goals in 12 first-half minutes.

Former Dundee United player Blair Spittal, Ryan Edwards and Conor Sammon struck before the half-hour mark.

But the visitors came out fighting and scored through Ryan Bowman and Craig Tanner to set up a thrilling finale.

Thistle had gone four points adrift of Dundee – who they visit on Saturday – at the foot of the table after a 5-1 defeat at Kilmarnock on Saturday and Archibald demanded a reaction following an “unacceptable” performance.

The manager was relieved to hang on, saying: “We said at half-time it was a great first half but we knew what was coming – Motherwell did the same up at Ross County a few weeks ago.

“We were well warned with it, but you could see we hadn’t won many games this year.

“We dropped deep and there was a bit of fear there. I’m just glad we rode it out and got three points.” Attendance: 2,452

Cerny, Keown, Devine, Turnbull, McGinn, Edwards, Barton, Woods (Fraser 66), Spittal (Lawless 84), Storey (Doolan 87), Sammon. Subs not used: Nitriansky, Erskine, Scully, McCarthy.

Griffiths, Kipre, McHugh, Dunne, Tait, Grimshaw (Bigirimana 46), Campbell, Rose (Tanner 46), Frear, Bowman, Petravicius (MacLean 66). Subs not used: Newell, Hammell, Livingstone, Turnbull.

Referee: Don Robertson.

Partick: Motherwell:

Alan Archibald: relieved to hang on for the win.