Partick Thistle 2-0 Clyde: Men against boys (vocally)

By Iain Hepburn on Nov 9, 08 10:00 AM in Results

There was a ridiculous rant at the Thistle support last weekend on the Jags Forum. Not by rival supporters, not by the Jags Ultras... but by the club's customer services bod, who slagged off the supporters in the rechristened shed end for not singing enough against Queen of the South.

Now, I know I congratulated the Queens support last weekend for bringing the noise with them, but for an official representative of the club to criticise its fans, on the back of a losing streak the width of the river Kelvin, shows everything that remains wrong about the hierarchy at the club.

That said, the perfect response came firing back at said moaner yesterday, as the Clyde fans - in good voice early on - found themselves outsung by Section 7. The childrens end. Yes, the sight of our young support outsqueeking the Gypsie hoards in the Viagra stand only adds to a perfect day.

This was a tidy, if unspectacular, performance from the Jags today, but after - through ridiculous circumstance - missing every derby clash this calendar year, I'll take any victory I can get.

And let's get this out the way first. Sorry to sound like a broken record but... Gary Harkins. Seriously now, what's going on? With every week his presence in the first team becomes more and more frustrating. When he breaks on a run forward I despair, knowing that its not the opposition that will disrupt the move, it'll be himself, tripping up over his own feet.

There's nothing worse than a player who ends up beating himself.

On the other hand, Paul Paton continues to impress. Against the Gypsies, he was full of energy and turned in a solid defensive shift, even running the full width of the pitch to pull of an inch-perfect slide tackle when the rest of the defence were standing off.

And, as our ever more enthusiastic stadium announcer took delight in pointing out, what a joy to be able to say for the first time in nine months that Liam Buchanan had scored. Liam's looked great since his return, and he could have had a couple more today but for bad luck.

What's becoming clear is that, when we tick, we look great, and that McCall's efforts at bringing in arguably untried, inexperienced young talent from the lower leagues is reaping dividends. Skipper Ian Maxwell is, I'm sure, the oldest member of the team and provides a steadying hand in the back line along the younger Paton, McKinlay, and Kinniburgh.

The latter's inexperience occasionally shows but he's proved an able deputy for Simon Storey, though he put a moment of fear through the fans when he half-assed a passback and Tuffey thankfully slid in to the rescue.

Clyde under Bomber Brown have turned out to be a brutal, thuggish side - far worse than Queens' physical approach last week - that play in a manner best described as 'smashmouth', most perfectly demonstrated in a sickening tackle on Simon Donnelly that nearly dumped his kneecaps in the Main Stand. They, thankfully, got what they deserved from the match - hee haw. Defeat at Firhill left them at the bottom of Division One, and long may they stay there to rot.

Annoyingly, we've now got a bit of momentum behind us that will have to be derailed by a week off - the Ross County game being rescheduled because of the latter's Alba Cup commitments, leaving us a trip to Dingwall on a Wednesday night in November. Who the hell came up with that idea?

But with Livingston coming, Thistle must keep the momentum going if we're going to be a credible threat in the Division going into 2009.