THEY’VE done it before and can do it again appears to be the mantra at Partick Thistle.
Before Thistle continue their propensity for pushing from bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership in one half of the season to the top half come the close though, it should be remembered there is a relegation battle to be won first.
The Firhill club, now in their fifth successive season of top tier football, went from basement dwellers just before Christmas to finish sixth last season. Having quelled the naysayers and risen from the automatic relegation place this festive period, Thistle on Saturday gave their followers the tantalising prospect of déjà vu by earning their first Premiership win away from Firhill since March 1 last year.
Steven Lawless, the man who put them on the path to that 3-1 win over St Johnstone with an early opener, said: “It is a similar situation to last year when we managed to get top six, and I think a few of the boys will probably have that in the back of their heads.”
He however, with Thistle still 11th in the table, still in the relegation play-off spot, also very much urged caution and for those players thinking that way to take the old cliche “a game at a time” to heart.
Lawless added: “But the first thing is to try and get safe, try and get as far up the table as we can and see where it takes us. “(That) managed to get us top six last year, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t do it this year.”
The contrast in reaction to being asked about banishing the away day hoodoo between Lawless and his manager Alan Archibald was fascinating. Archibald was visibly relieved ‘the monkey off the back’ was removed and Thistle could celebrate their first three points away this season, whereas Lawless admitted: “If I’m being honest, I wasn’t even aware of it that we hadn’t won (away in the league). We’d won here in the cup so it wasn’t something in my mind. It might have been in the other players’ minds. But obviously the more these things go on, the more people are going to talk about them, so it’s good to get that put to bed.”
If Archibald was able to sleep a lot sounder come Saturday night, St Johnstone looked as if they had just got out of bed. Their extended winter break hibernation due to the twice-postponed Scottish Cup tie at Albion Rovers continued against Thistle to the extent that manager Tommy Wright not only refused any of his players speak to the media after the defeat but has also promised wholesale changes at Cliftonhill tonight.
Bar a David Wotherspoon disallowed free-kick goal from the left flank, which evaded everyone and bounced into the net only to be ruled out by referee Gavin Duncan due to an infringement – one that Wright was baffled about – St Johnstone offered nowhere near enough to threaten Thistle after Lawless’s opener.
Conor Sammon put Thistle further in front shortly after the hour mark – his fifth goal in four games – and while Liam Craig reduced the deficit from the penalty spot, the injury time run from his own half and fine finish from substitute Ryan Edwards was what the visitors deserved.
“When the team sheet goes up (for Albion Rovers) that will say it all and it’s up to people to respond to that,” Wright said.
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