Partick Thistle beat a seven-goal thriller in the first leg of their Scottish Premiership playoff quarter-final against Queen’s Park thanks to Brian Graham’s late strike.
Clinical workouts from Kyle Turner and Jack McMillan put hosts Thistle ahead ahead of Dom Thomas’ clever response.
Aidan Fitzpatrick’s goal restored the lead before two long shots from Malachi Boateng and Thomas.
However, Graham’s close range finish prevailed in stoppage time.
Who will face Ayr United in the play-off semi-final will be decided on Friday at the temporary home of Queen’s Park at Stenhousemuir’s Ochilview Park.
Head coach Owen Coyle will certainly have to tighten the home side’s defense after a similar performance to last week, when they missed out on automatic promotion – and fell to third in the Championship – with a 5-3 defeat at home to Dundee in their title decider.
Coyle looked to freshen up the visiting team, making changes to their defense, and it seemed to be working as Grant Savory fired wide wide and Charlie Fox, who scored twice on Friday, had a close-range effort cleared by the guard David. Mitchell and on a post.
However, Turner had already fired by the time the midfielder entered the box and his shot was deflected by the unfortunate Fox.
Thistle quickly extended his lead as Scott Tiffoney set up McMillan to shoot into the roof of the net.
The game had turned in Thistle’s favor but Dom Thomas got past a few opponents at the edge of the penalty area before shooting past Mitchell.
Thistle was back in front after the break as substitute Fitzpatrick completed Scott Tiffoney’s cut, but Boateng’s deflected strike sent Mitchell the wrong way before the goalkeeper was knocked down by Thomas’ second of the night.
Veteran forward Graham, however, had the last laugh.
More soon.
