Lambie out of luck and minus Charnley

DOUGLAS CAMPBELL

10 Oct 1994

THEIR ability to escape from a tight spot has been equalled only by Harry Houdini, but you know what eventually happened to him.

Partick Thistle again look to be in a spot of bother, and the worry this time is that perhaps manager John Lambie finally has run out of miracles, lucky white heather, rabbits' feet, or whatever else he has used in recent times to do the business for the club.

The man looked drained as he moaned about the afternoon's goings-on.

"If only this guy had done this, or that guy that, or ..." Life can be a real so-and-so when you're down.

But the bottom line was that Hearts thanked Thistle for the game, popped the three points into a safe place, and were off home, leaving their hosts propping up the division.

Of course, the Maryhill Magyars have always been fighters, made of stern stuff, but although they had a fine chance to equalise John Robertson's goal, one had the feeling that whatever questions Thistle posed, Hearts would have an answer.

Lambie praised his men's efforts during their 1-0 defeat, but took a swipe at Lady Luck for dealing his club, as he sees it, a bad hand for most of the season so far.

"When things are going against you, they don't half use a big hammer to bury you in the ground," he said.

The manager's immediate efforts to lift his team to a position of safety in the league must again be carried out without the services of Chic Charnley, who consistently has been the Firhill side's main man since day one of the campaign.

He whipped the pins from under Robertson right on full-time, an action for which referee Jim Herald thought it right and proper to send Charnley packing.

The strange thing was that as the official was doing the paperwork, Robertson writhed in apparent agony, but just seconds later was again hale and hearty.

Very strange.

Anyway, the forward was seen doing what he does best after 25 minutes, when he turned a Tosh McKinlay corner into the Thistle net, one of the few highlights in an otherwise forgettable match.

Tommy McLean, the Hearts manager, claimed that his employees had just turned in a "dodgy performance," but he was chuffed with the display of recent signing Jim Bett, who hardly broke sweat.

But then, if you have a little class, you don't need to gallop around like someone possessed.

Thistle must now dig deep and do plenty of running around in the months ahead if the air of despondency, which was quite apparent at Firhill as evening set in on Saturday, is not to become all-embracing.

Taken from the Herald