Partick live to fight another day

Patrick Glenn at Firhill
Sunday January 9, 2005
The Observer

If the overriding emotion of both teams was relief at surviving an abysmal first instalment of this Scottish Cup third-round tie - the replay is scheduled to take place in Edinburgh on Wednesday week - it would be matched by the sense of release that the spectators must have experienced on hearing the final whistle.

Whatever the status of Partick at any given time - they are at present struggling in the First Division - visitors to Firhill are usually made to feel uncomfortable enough, without the kind of climatic conditions that turned this particular match into an endurance test.

A ferocious wind that blew rain and sleet horizontally across the pitch was accompanied by a predictable ambition in the home team that put Hearts' resolve to a severe test for most of the 90 minutes.

The Tynecastle team's vulnerability had seemed likely the moment they were forced to sell striker Mark de Vries and full-back Alan Maybury to Leicester City at the start of the week. Partick were clearly well briefed by their new manager, Dick Campbell, in the matter of expending maximum energy to exert unsettling pressure.

Their diligence seemed to have brought a reward as early as the third minute, when Jamie Mitchell, isolated in the area, took a loose ball and struck a low drive that was so close to Craig Gordon's right-hand post that the home crowd believed that it was in the net. However, it passed on the wrong side.

Juan Escalas would come even closer before the interval, taking a pass from Derek Fleming and sending the ball, on the turn, off the outside of Gordon's right-hand post.

Hearts' difficulties with their own form appeared at times to be so profound that it was reasonable to infer that they would have struggled even if the two influential players who had headed south had still been in the team.

Apart from a volley by Kevin McKenna, just wide, from Dennis Wyness's headed flick, they spent the entire first half generally giving the impression that they were under instructions not to bother Kenny Arthur in the home team's goal.

In an attempt at putting some muscle into his midfield and some finesse into his attack, Hearts manager John Robertson introduced Patrick Kisnorbo and Ramon Pereira for Wyness and Graham Weir respectively.

There was, however, not immediate improvement in the mediocrity that epitomised the work of both teams, Partick having put on Billy Gibson for his namesake, Andy, and Steve Fulton for Adam Strachan.

Despite the amount of rain that had fallen, the pitch could not reasonably be used as an excuse for the appalling standard of play because the drainage system had clearly been efficient, leaving the playing surface as sound as could be expected in the circumstances, free of the slipperiness that could have led to unforced errors.

Grant Murray, the Partick defender, needed no such artificial assistance in the business of making mistakes, however, when he failed to deal with a long pass through the middle and allowed Pereira free possession and the space in which to set up a shot.

It was, however, a typically poor effort from the substitute, the ball running weakly into the arms of Arthur. Hearts did, however, manage for the most part to gain more territory in forward areas than they had in the first half, even if their imagination and incisiveness remained virtually non- existent.

Long before the end, however, it was obvious that Partick had not even energy to offer. It was as much as they could do defend their way to the draw that at brings them a night in the capital.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer