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I wasn't there last week, when apparently we were very good, but in footballing terms today wasn't a great performance, although a definite improvement on the Utd and Alloa matches. Partick probably played the better football and made the better chances in the first half, although they barely tested Ridgers; we definitely had more of it in the second, with Polworth controlling things in the middle, but even then, to secure the win, we had to rely on a brilliant penalty save from Ridgers and a horrific miss from Aidan Fitzpatrick when he was through on goal in the final minute. It was, however, a battling performance, and you could see what it meant to the players with the celebrations at the end. Coll Donaldson seemed to be playing most of the second half with an injury and still won everything; McCart had a fine game alongside him; Chalmers was tenacious and mostly solid, filling in a position where he struggled badly at the start of last season, Welsh and Polworth were excellent and Walsh never stopped looking to create, despite some frustrating final balls, and was eventually rewards with a great goal after a terrific run. Even Trafford, whose touch and distribution were ropey at times, and who must have sensed the crowd's frustration, never hid and never stopped fighting. And Ridgers, of course, was Ridgers. To be honest, the tense, scrappy nature of the win probably made the end of the match more cathartic and satisfying than a 3-0 stroll would have done, but it would make our games an easier watch if we had better final product and better movement up front at times. Hopefully this is something that will improve over the season, although with our budget and squad size there are always going to be limitations, not helped when one of our more creative outlets makes his position untenable. Hopefully the freeing-up of Calder's wage will allow us to bring in someone else who can add width and creativity to the team, in January if not before. In the meantime, we have a great opportunity to build on finally breaking the run of draws in Dumfries next week.

I was there as a 15 year old, amazed at the oasis of light that Kingsmills was that night, due to It being the only place lit up that night as we were going through electricity blackouts and the three day working week. We walked from Hilton, and all you could see was the glow from Kingsmills. What a great spectacle It was.

Not a good performance in the first half as Partick had the better (half) chances and a lot more of the ball. We were really poor in the final third struggling to create anything of note and finding ourselves misplacing a lot of passes when we tried to build some kind of attack so we resorted to a lot of high balls in the vague direction of Oakley or to the flanks for Doran / Walsh to challenge for. Second half we improved and, in a match low on quality overall, perhaps the only two pieces of real quality won it for us. Walsh cut in from the left flank and sent a curling effort towards goal which the home keeper just got his finger tips to but it wasn't enough to stop the ball hitting the net. Ridgers then pulled off an excellent double save from a penalty by Spittal. The first save was low to his left then he was alert to jump back to his feet and smother the follow up effort. With Calder now gone and Tremarco injured Chalmers filled in at left back and wasn't great. Reasonable enough defensively but he struggled to support Walsh / Doran when required though he's made his home in central midfield for a while now so it was a bit of a square peg in a round hole situation there. Trafford was poor taking the place of Chalmers in midfield. He improved as the game went on but his passing was very slack and his touch poor. A first half booking curtailed him in effectively challenging for the ball somewhat. Doran too was a bit disappointing for most of the game. We struggled to create anything of note on the wings but Walsh lit the game up with his fantastic strike. However there were plenty of good performances from an ICT PoV. Ridgers for obvious reasons but also McCart and Donaldson at the back. McCart looks like he's been playing all season. That's twice now (I think) he's started games and breezed through them. Looks like a real gem for the future. Donaldson gets lots of praise from the support and rightly so. He did have a classic Coll brain fart moment trying to be too cute shielding the ball from the opposition and then almost giving it away but for most of the game he blocked every shot, cleared every header and kept everyone at the back organised. In the second half he appeared from nowhere to fling himself at a ball that a Partick player was winding up to volley towards goal. He's too good for us so we should enjoy him while we can. ETA: Someone filmed the penalty save from the home stand behind the goals:

It's so great to be reading the cheeriness and optimism from the posts today, raises the spirit no end. Well done to all, obviously an all round team and backroom staff effort to get through the difficult week and get the result

Didn’t we have a lovely day the day went to Partick. Well I just about got there and no thanks to yet another Rail strike. But it was well worth it to watch a sublime Tom Walsh curler hit the back of a rain soaked net in the 71st minute of what I can only describe as a turgid affair. Pre match we went “Into the Deep” and I enjoyed a scuba dive with Red Card, RIG, the Moffat Bros and a certain Mr. Oliver. Nice to actually listen to plaudits for the backroom staff and confirmation that a lot is actually been done behind the scenes. Never saw or heard a vulture all day. Anyway to the game and probably a reason to make a more extensive introduction. In a way we were lucky to get away with three points. Partick had the more clear cut chances BUT they looked poor and never really looked like scoring, even from the penalty spot. It isn’t hard to cheer on Caley when you are bombarded with “Come on Thistle / Jags” shouts and chants !! And a paltry crowd of just over 2500 at the ”Energy Check Stadium” just summed up the fall of the Magyars of Firhill. A closed main stand and the barren hill at one end was a rather pitiful sight – especially when the heavens opened. It was another disciplined and well organized defensive display that brought home the points. To be honest we never really tested Cammy Bell until the goal and although it was a sweet strike Bell did appear to flounder – and perhaps we should have had more than four strikes on target from 15 attempts. The first half was rather tedious. It was an open affair but neither side showed that killer touch. It looks like neither outfit have that goal scoring forward. Nice but ineffective tippy-tappy stuff but always either a poor last touch or a failed through ball. Plastic Whistle probably had the best opportunities when Ridgers saved from Quitongo and Doolan fluffed a half chance. We appeared to move up a gear at the start of the second half and Oakley squandered a couple of chances from corner kick ploys. And then Thistle IMHO made a major error in hooking Miles Storey who had evidently been buoyed by facing his old team but his magic hat vanished and Gary Calwell displayed some of his tactical magic once again. And then on 71 minutes TOM WALSH successfully pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Picking up the ball on the left, neatly cut inside and curled a beauty via a sweeter right foot. But it was only three minutes later when we could have fecked it up. IMHO it was never a penalty but officials have a tendency to make such rewards when the ball accidentally is fired at a defenders flailing arm. But Ridgers stood tall and showered himself with a Calderesque (Jim by the way) slap off the crossbar, through himself to his left and tapped the ball round the post. He is definitely “One of our own”. And the Plastic boys then went all out to save the game but Ridgers, Coll and Mccart stood firm and were abetted by the substitute Fitzpatrick of Partick who missed a 1-1 chance and never even tested Ridgers. So our unbeaten run continued and Thistle slumped to their seventh consecutive defeat. And the relief from our players was clearly displayed as to a man plus Robbo they hailed the travelling support. SMILEYMOMETER RIDGERS ? ? ?? ?– I suspect that many will award him MOM. Well to me he was a very close second. But he has come on leaps and bounds and must be as good a custodian as anyone else in Scotland. Perhaps Tin-Tin Mcleish should have a wee gander. McKAY ? ? ?– Well he basically did his job defensively but rarely went forward apart from dead ball situations. DONALDSON ? ? ?? ?– MOM with a superb display. Made one bad error but more than made up for it. His calmness and distribution was a joy to behold. McCART ? ? ?? - Now that was a very solid looking central defence pairing. McCart was more of a get rid / hoof type performance but almost as effective as Coll. CHALMERS ? ? ?– Has not played at full back for some time but did a good job. Evidently was thinking defence and like Brad rarely foraged forward. POLWORTH ? ? ? - Well he ran and ran and ran. Clearly designated as the play maker but his ggod touches and good deliveries were almost the same ratio as the flawed ones. But he really did not have many moving targets. Perhaps Doran should be taking more of the dead ball ploys. TRAFFORD ? ? ?– Stood his ground, didn’t make any mistakes but had a quiet 90 minutes. WELSH – ? ? ?Did a good job as the defending midfielder. Clearly thinks a good game and was leading others around him. DORAN – ? ? ? not sure exactly where he was playing. Perhaps it was supposed to have been as a Number 10 but it looked more like an extra midfielder to me. I far prefer him playing out wider. WALSH – ? ? ??Apart from the goal he looked the man most likely to produce chances. The only flaw was his reluctance to take on defenders and play the through ball 20-30 yards out instead of hitting the bye line. OAKLEY – ? ? Basically up front on his Jack Jones and really should have scored from the one heading chance that came his way. WHITE – Never really got a chance to show anything as he came on when we were under the cosh. But perhaps he should have started as his height may well have been more effective. And we only had four outfield players on the bench including McGregor and Harper. So three points was more deserving for a depleted squad. So lets roll on to Dumbfries and punder another three points from the Doon Hammers.

If anyone can remember as far back as our previous win, it was also against Partick. They are the ciabatta of our draw sandwich.

Great result. Consistent performances will surely have an effect over the season. Momentum is building and team spirit is strong. Onwards and upwards ?

Record attendance for Thistle 7,550 for a friendly against Celtic in 1972 to inaugurate the then new floodlights at Kingsmills.

A great result after what must have been a very difficult week for the players. Not only have we finally put the sequence of draws behind us , we have ended a winless run and extended our record unbeaten run. A rearranged defence kept a clean sheet and according to the BBC stats we had 15 attempts on goals so must have been creating a fair bit. All of this has got to give the team confidence going forward. The smallness of our squad was illustrated by the fact there were only 5 on the bench today, however, the U18's terrific result last night and throughout this season shows there are young lads pushing for a place in the 1st team squad. There's a lot to be optimistic about.

Woo Hoo a win at last but well done lads and especially Mark for the penalty save Happy Saturday Folks ?

Agreed. The best 'keeper in the division and becoming one of the best in the country. One of the main reasons we have now had the longest unbeaten league run in our history. The poor start to his ICT career is a distant memory and a contract extension should be an absolute priority. I would not be averse to using the cash saved by Calder no longer being on the wage bill for that purpose.

Ridgers has become so good, he will surely attract attention from other clubs. I hope we tie him down with a generous contract. Great day, we were due a bit of fortune.

Fantastic. Credit to all at the club for ending our run of draws and extending our winning run at the end of what has been a difficult week.

Is that all the highlights we're getting this week? 1:30 of long range blurry crap?

Not exactly defending his actions, and unfortunate to see him go, but surely there's more to the story. He's a decent lad doubt he'd go ahead and clobber someone over a fender bender. And also, it's confusing, because correct me if I'm wrong, but werent Danny Williams and another player (forget who, may have been Doran) done by the police for a fight or something in the city centre?

Gutted bout Calder what a clown defo 1 of our better players but can't have a woman beater on the pitch eh least it was only squaddies Foran hammered !

Tbh, that does bring up an interesting point. Richie had been involved in a few punch ups while at ICT, one being understandably for sectarian abuse against him and Doran from some drunkards, and another for something or other, and hell, he ended up keeping his place and eventually managing the team (albeit terribly). Aaron Doran and Danny Devine (and another bloke, who was unnamed), also done in with the police over an incident which the police still haven't disclosed to the public, despite it being over 4 years on, and slapped with 40 quid fines. I am definitely not saying what Ricky did was a good idea (firmly admit that karma gets back to you), but how come he got booted out of the club for clobbering someone (which the rest of these guys had done, some occasions they were a tad drunk), yet the rest managed to keep their contracts and get away with minimal repercussions (i.e. cuffs slapped on them then hauled to court and let off with fines/suspended jail sentence (which I believe was the case in Foran's first punch up))? I guess, in a way, it's to teach younger fans a lesson "Don't be an idiot and start punching people, just cos your car got slightly dented", but surely if that was the case, then Foran, Doran and Devine would've been kicked out to teach the younger fans a lesson of "Don't start fights in public"...