ST JOHNSTONE 1, PARTICK THISTLE 2.
THERE has been a creeping suspicion around Firhill of late that, if it wasn’t for bad luck, Partick Thistle would, to paraphrase a famous old blues record, have no luck at all.
They need feel that way no longer. There were plenty of good reasons behind the side’s first victory at McDiarmid Park for almost 22 years – not least two goals from Gary Miller and Stevie Lawless that belong very much in the howitzer category – but no-one can deny the floating role played by Dame Fortune. If only her distant cousin, Marc-Antoine, could have been so influential for Celtic.
She has been sorely absent on matchdays at Thistle of late. There was that afternoon in which Alan Archibald’s men hit the woodwork three times before losing a late goal to Dundee. Even that didn’t leave them quite as crestfallen as Aberdeen’s Adam Rooney clearly handling the ball inside their area before scoring the first goal in a 2-0 defeat.
Mustapha Dumbaya being ruled out through illness before kick-off in Perth carried ominous portents, but, as it worked out, his unavailability opened the way for Miller to stand in at right-back and deliver a matchwinning performance.
His opening goal, a thunderous grasscutter that curled into the right-hand corner of Alan Mannus’ net with such clinical beauty, was a moment to live in the memory. Let it not be forgotten, though, that he made an equally important contribution with just five minutes to play, putting in a desperate, saving tackle on Steven MacLean after the St Johnstone forward had rounded the keeper and looked destined to make it 2-2.
What happened moments later was the real proof, mind you, that things have taken a turn for the better for Maryhill's finest. Abdul Osman, already in the book for a foul 20 minutes earlier, was sent-off for handling a shot from Joe Shaughnessy.
What is to be taken from going down to 10 men, you may ask. Well, Osman committed the offence inside the area. The referee, John Beaton, to the horror of the home players, awarded nothing more than a free-kick on the edge of the box, which MacLean promptly blazed into the stand behind the goal.
Miller, who only left Saints in the summer, remains friends with many of those within the dressing-room at McDiarmid Park. Forget about him offering a sympathetic ear to complaints that they were robbed, though.
“We don’t care,” he stated. “We’ve had plenty going against us such as the Rooney handball before he scored, which changed that whole game, and there have been others.
“There could have been a penalty at the end, but, in other games, you’ve seen decisions go against us, so it’s good to get that wee bit of luck.
“I think you could see before the game that the guys were a wee bit down because results weren’t going our way, but everybody kept plugging away and the team spirit was still there.”
The only drawback for Miller was that his goal was not the most spectacular of the afternoon. He was still getting over the shock of scoring when he directed a throw-in towards Lawless and watched him unleash a left-footed thunderbolt from 30 yards which whistled into poor old Mannus’ top right-hand corner with the speed of a proton rattling around the Hadron Collider.
“Within 30 seconds of my goal, Lawless ran up and I thought he was going to congratulate me, but he said: ‘Have you been watching me in training?’,” recalled Miller.
“Five minutes later, I threw the ball in for him and he did the same. I thought: ‘What are the chances of that?’
“He’s already saying that I had Goal of the Season for five minutes.
“Listen, I’ll take a goal a season, never mind Goal of the Season.”
Tommy Wright, the St Johnstone manager, clearly felt Lawless’ effort benefited from another large dollop of the good luck that had deserted the Jags until the weekend.
“We got done on a throw-in, which we shouldn’t do, but he could hit that another 50 times and it wouldn’t go in,” remarked the Northern Irishman.
His side should certainly have taken something from this entertaining affair. The visiting goalkeeper, Tomas Cerny, produced a couple of excellent saves, Liam Craig headed a great chance past the post and Saints dominated after MacLean had made the scoreline 2-1 early in the second half.
MacLean has done well to reach the nine-goal mark in the league this season, but it remains a mystery how he did not make it 10 after evading Cerny to leave himself with an empty net to aim at late on.
“Somehow, I managed to get round and block it,” reflected Miller. “I just had to try and take him out no matter what, because I couldn’t score a goal like that and not get the win.”
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