Partick 1-3 Arbroath: More Maryhill misery for Thistle

Arbroath's Michael McKenna celebrates making it 2-1 against Partick Thistle. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

Not only are Thistle unable to win a league match in Maryhill, they have now lost all five this season and remain bottom of the Championship.

It was left to assistant manager Alan Archibald to explain the situation after the latest loss, a 3-1 reverse against Arbroath yesterday.

He said: “We’ve got to address the home form because the longer it goes on teams recognise that and can come and play on that.

“It’s not as though the fans have been on the players’ back. The fans have been excellent and are desperate to get behind the team.

“So the onus and responsibility is on us, the staff and the players, to make sure we get that victory.

“We need to get the monkey off our back as quick as we can because we’ll need those points to get into a good position in the league.”

You have to hand it to Dick Campbell and Arbroath who continue to defy all and sundry who predicted that they would fail to cope in the Championship.

They have a compactness and solidity about them that makes them difficult to play against but they have the talent to hurt opponents on the break.

That is exactly what happened as they endured some Partick pressure and then struck on the counter eight minutes before half-time.

It was great play from Bobby Linn on the left side as he eased past Ryan Williamson and perfectly picked out Luke Donnelly.

The striker hardly needed to break stride as he slammed a right-foot shot into the left corner.

Thistle were level in 59 minutes when Stuart Bannigan slotted a penalty after Ricky Little’s handball.

However, the former captain was the guilty man as he conceded a spot-kick in 74 minutes that changed the course of the match.

Donnelly was cute, putting his body in front of the Thistle midfielder to draw a challenge and it was an easy decision for Gavin Ross to make.

Substitute Michael McKenna, pictured, sent Scott Fox the wrong way with a confident kick and Arbroath went on to find a third goal.

It was great play from another replacement, Omar Kader, whose reverse pass sent Colin Hamilton racing in on the left side of the box in  77 minutes and he drilled a left-foot shot that seemed to go between Fox’s legs.

Campbell said: “I’m absolutely delighted to get three points away from home. We took our chances and they didn’t.”