Greenfield Park, Shettleston
Shettleston v Larkhall Thistle
McBookie.com West Region – League One
The junior fixture list took advantage of a temporary lull in the monsoon to play their first games since the corona virus was just a sniffle, unfortunately for Thistle it was against the probable league winners. Transfer-listed Graham Gracie started the game up front with Jack Currie and there was a debut for new signing Johnny Lindsay in midfield. Taylor Scott and Ben Fraser had left the club since the last game.
The opening spell of the game was fairly even with the only real half chance falling to Shettleston, a cut back for a good shooting opportunity that was scuffed and gathered easily by Cherry in the Thistle goal.
After a promising start though things took a disastrous turn with two goals in five minutes both from defensive howlers. The first in the 14th minute came from a ball inside Kyle Stewart for the right winger to run on to, with Stewart stranded Cherry came charging out of his goal but missed the ball altogether leaving an empty net for the winger to roll the ball into.
The second was if anything worse, Cherry came out to claim what was the most routine looking cross but somehow managed to drop the ball under no pressure whatsoever and it fell to a Shettleston player who slammed it in.
It took until the 24th minute for Thistle to pose any sort of threat at all when Gracie took the ball to the corner of the box and slipped his marker to set up Grenfell whose shot was blocked. Five minutes later the Jags produced their best move so far, Dickson won the ball in defence and played it down the left channel to Gracie who picked out Currie making a run. The ball was set perfectly for him to hit first time but he didn’t fancy it on his left foot and took a touch, by the time he’d set himself the defence was in place and the move petered out.
That could have been a turning point but instead it was Shettleston who scored again, albeit this time with more than a little help from the referee. A pinpoint ball out wide to the left picked out the winger who played an early ball in to the middle. The Thistle defence had done its job this time and the line held firm leaving the striker yards offside but not for the first time the referee waved play on and there was no mistake from right in front of the goal.
Thistle were deflated as they saw their chances disappear due to the incompetence of the referee and the home team took full advantage with a fourth straight after with an almost identical goal to the third, this time the striker had a tap in from close range and may or may not have been offside, probably too close to call.
Thistle managed their first shot on target a minute later and again it was the combination of a cutting through ball from Dickson and this time Jack setting up Gracie for the effort.
Half time: Shettleston 4 Larkhall Thistle 0
Larkhall manager Brian Crawford reacted to the first half performance in the strongest possible way by making three half-time substitutions, off came Kyle Stewart who’d had a nightmare first half and Scott Cowan and Barthoz neither of whom had done much wrong but probably not affected the game as much as they could have.
The changes had an immediate impact, Thistle had the first chance of the second half and it nearly produced a goal, Gracie whiiped in a ball from a corner from the left and it got a touch that the keeper had to react quickly to get down and touch past the post.
Just after the hour mark the Jags were dealt a blow when Lindsay went down injured and without any subs left chose to play out the last half hour obviously in pain and struggling to run.
A minute later Thistle pulled a goal back, a free kick on the edge of the area was curled in by Gracie and it was almost immediately followed up with a second goal as Jack nicked in front of the last defender to get a flick on a loose ball but again the keeper’s reactions – and luck – kept the ball out. The Jags had their tails up now and kept the pressure on, winning another free kick on the left delivered right into Sean Gallagher for a free header he should have done better with.
Thistle were by far the better team in the second half as the manager’s changes paid off in style but Cherry had to throw himself up to the top corner to save brilliantly from a fierce shot. Larkhall had the last chance of the game though with a whipped in free kick that found Gracie free at the back post but he sent his header over the bar.
On the face of it today was a bad result but there are positives to take from the game. Winning the second half, the emergence of new boys David Dunnachie and Johnny Lindsay and a Thistle man of the match performance from Chris Dickson who mopped up nearly everything that came his way and started most of the attacking moves, especially in the first half with his range of passing.
Next game is Saturday home to Wishaw kick off 14:00
Full time: Shettleston 4 Larkhall Thistle 1
Larkhall Thistle:
Cherry; Boyle, Dunnachie, Dickson, Stewart (Dawson 45); Barthoz (Gallagher 45), Lindsay, Cowan (Cuthbertson 45), Grenfell, Gracie, Currie
