Partick Thistle 3 - 2 Raith Rovers: No place like home for Thistle

Firhill has been called many things over the years, but for the campaign to date it has undeniably become a fortress for Partick Thistle as they made it eight wins out of eight on home soil as their quest for promotion to the SPL continues to gather momentum.

This was not the most impressive shift that Thistle put in while extending this 100 per cent record, with an enterprising Raith side undoubtedly departing Glasgow feeling somewhat sore that they had nothing to show for contributing to a thoroughly enjoyable encounter.

Nevertheless, the old adage about winning while not playing at your best always comes to fore when sides are chasing titles and Partick manager Jackie McNamara felt they were due the break afforded by Steven Craig’s 87th-minute winner.

“I was delighted with the lads, they kept going”, he insisted. “We’ve played a lot better and got nothing this season.

“I don’t think there were a lot of guys on top of their form, but getting the three points was the main thing.”

A fast-paced and end-to-end first half certainly made a compelling case for those who had opted to come along to Firhill rather than immerse themselves in festive-related activities for the afternoon.

Both sides spread the ball across park probing for openings and it was Raith who made the initial breakthrough, albeit with a goal that warranted a searching post-mortem in the home dressing room at the interval.

The Thistle rearguard lapsed into pipe and slipper mode for a free-kick taken from near the halfway line and granted Rovers’ Greig Spence the freedom of Maryhill to loft the ball over the advancing Graeme Smith.

The ability to bounce back from setbacks, whether self-inflicted or not, has been a recurring feature of McNamara’s men this season and they demonstrated their mental fortitude again yesterday as they swiftly turned the game around with two well-struck goals from Stuart 
Bannigan and Steven Lawless.

The latter’s strike was a venomous effort into the roof of the Rovers net.

Raith were not found wanting on the resilience side of things either and they calmly kept plugging away.

Leading scorer Brian Graham looked a threat every time he had the ball in the vicinity of the Partick goal and he came close to restoring parity just before the break with a well-executed shot on the turn that just slipped past the far post.

Shortly after the resumption he saw another effort go narrowly wide after the ball broke off Smith following a collision with Spence.

With the hosts being unable to cash in on several chances of their own, most notably when Aaron Muirhead was denied at close range after a wonderful driving run, the game was nicely poised for a grandstand finish and we were not disappointed.

The Fifers must have thought they had salvaged a point when talisman Graham finally hit the target after a melee in the Thistle box but their celebrations were hastily curtailed as Craig swept in the winner following a corner to spark off some early seasonal celebrations among the Firhill faithful.

“We had spells in the game where I thought we played really well, but it’s disappointing to lose it from a set piece at the end,” admitted crestfallen Raith Rovers manager Grant Murray.