Clyde v Partick Thistle

Recap

Clyde ended their run of defeats with a hard fought draw against Thistle at Broadwood but it could have been a victory had the referee not ignored what appeared to be a certain penalty claim late on in the second half.

Clyde were missing Wilson and Sheridan but Gibson won his battle for fitness and took up his place in midfield alongside Craig Bryson. Gary Arbuckle took up a place on the right of the midfield.

Thistle left Jamie Mitchell on the bench as Stevie Fulton was dropped in favour of Dowie in the middle of the park and it was he who tested Halliwell first as the big English keeper touched his early shot over the bar.

The game started in scrappy style and did not really improve but early on Thistle saw Hinds fire across goal as both keepers could have joined their fans in the stand, and there would have been more room for Arthur as for the first time in a long time there were more home fans than away ones in Broadwood. Obviously a sign of how poorly the side from Maryhill have been doing under bosses Whyte and Britton.

Clyde’s first chance came from a long Mensing ball to Wilford but as he broke through beating the offside trap the big striker just failed to get the ball under control and Arthur gratefully grabbed it. Then a speculative cross from Fleming beat Halliwell but came off the bar.

On twenty minutes Clyde took the lead, possibly against the run of play, when a Bollan free kick took a deflection to beat Arthur in goal (see picture above). Then Wilford had a chance to double the lead as Arthur fumbled a long ball from defence but his flailing shot went wide of the goal.

Thistle were defending doggedly now as Clyde took the game to them but the Thistle set-up was restricting the home side to long shots at goal and a Mensing shot just went wide. Clyde were looking the better side now but were struggling to create much up front, and an Arbuckle shot was easily held by Arthur.

Then with minutes to go, Referee Grimes awarded a free kick to Thistle when it looked as though his assistant awarded a goal kick to Clyde. From the kick, Andy Wilkinson got in front of the defence to nod home the equaliser.

At the start of the second half the ref made another apparent blunder when he adjudged Murray to have passed back to Arthur when he had clearly used his shin. His assistant on this occasion over-ruled him and then he further enraged the visiting fans when he insisted the game restart with a bounced ball.

The second half was spoiled as any type of spectacle when a fussy ref in the first half became an over-fussy ref in the second and his constant whistle-blowing meant that flowing football was not on offer at all.

Great work down the right from Bryson where he fought for the ball in a few tackles led to a strong penalty appeal as his cross was deflected out and a Thistle defender seemed to get his hand in the way. Despite strenuous appeals, the ref waived it away. Then Arthur got down holding an Arbuckle shot. McLaren could have wrapped the points up for Thistle but his shot went wide.

The game petered out to a 1-1 draw which will please the away fans more then the home fans, but both sides halted their recent run of poor results though the point was not enough to stop Thistle sliding into the relegation zone as Clyde moved up to second.