Partick Thistle 1
Dundee 0
League Cup (4th Round)

Match Report

After a day of horrendous weather, but thankfully the rain had stopped after a constant 35 hour downpour by kick off time.

Jim Duffy sprung a surprise with a completely different midfield from the one which had faced the Dons three days earlier. Indeed, while he went for a tried and trusted defence, only Steven Milne of the attacking players who faced Aberdeen started.

The opening period was played mainly in midfield and, although there had been plenty of effort, there seemed to be a lack of creativity. Zura Khizanishvili was doing well in his first start for ten months and looked completely at home in the centre of the park.

As half time approached both sides had their best chances of the half, first Thistle new boy Chiarni headed only a couple of feet wide and then Sara got on the end of a Brady cross, but Arthur saved his header well.

Nacho Novo who had replaced Robb was involved in the most controversial moment of the evening in 77 minutes as he chased a through ball with keeper Arthur. The Thistle custodian was outside his box when he picked the ball up to deny Novo- surely a clear red card, but Mr Dougal showed only yellow, and from the subsequent free kick, Sara curled his effort narrowly over.

Dundee had a strong shout for a penalty early in the second half as a Brady's cross struck a defenders arm, but the ref waved play on.

Six minutes later Zura fed Sara eight yards out, and as the striker turned, he went down, but the referee was right on this occasion, indicating no penalty.

Thistle came close following a corner in 53 minutes with the Dundee defence glad to scramble the ball away, but Dundee were coming into the match more than in the first period and Sara headed Brady's cross narrowly wide four minutes later.

Six minutes later Dundee's evening went sour as Hardie played a one-two with Archibald and struck to put the home side into the next round. Dundee threw on Lovell and pushed Wilkie forward as they tried to pull the game out of the fire, but Thistle sub Gerry Britton came closest to scoring with a couple of efforts on the break- one of which forced Speroni into an excellent stop.

Dundee couldn't complain, they hadn't shown nearly enough flair and didn't really deserve anything from this tie.

Match report written by Dundee Matchday Programme