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Partick Thistle Avoid Scare to Defeat Raith Rovers

Partick Thistle halted a Raith Rovers comeback as they defeated a side that came back from two goals down 3-2 at the Wyre Stadium at Firhill. This result inflicts Raith with their first league defeat of the campaign, with Thistle now unbeaten since their opening day 5-1 thrashing to St. Johnstone and find themselves  level on points with today’s travelling side. The hosts raced in front with a blistering performance in the opening quarter of an hour of the game, with journeyman talisman Tony Watt giving the Jags the lead in the 7th minute of the game, when he slid onto the end of a low cross courtesy of Thistle academy graduate Aidan Fitzpatrick who’s work down the left wing made it all happen. Fitzpatrick would score one of his own just six minutes later, cutting onto his right foot with the use of a couple of stopovers, and putting his laces through the ball to bury it passed Josh Rae in the away goal. Thistle remained on top of the visitors up until the 20th minute which is when the momentum began to shift in favour of the Kirkcaldy side, when Partick Thistle captain Lee Ashcroft brought down Raith forward Paul McMullan inside the box and was booked for his troubles. Dylan Easton took the spot kick, and sent goalkeeper Josh Clarke the wrong way as he tucked the ball into the bottom left corner the goal. Raith found inspiration from this avenue back into the match and really began to take the game to Mark Wilson’s side, eventually finding an equaliser after being two behind so early on in the 36th minute. McMullan chased an aerial long ball and chested it down to put himself through one on one with Clarke. He took it round the Thistle goalkeeper but the angle was unkind to him, leaving him with no option but to square it back across for midfielder Ross Matthews to hammer home and level the scoring. Many of the Thistle faithful had their hearts in their mouths on the 65th minute when Raith striker Lewis Vaughan went down inside the box, with many fearing the home side had conceded another penalty. Alas, the referee brandished his yellow card to Vaughan for simulation. Thistle reclaimed their lead 16 minutes from time, as both of their wingers combined to give them the advantage. Aidan Fitzpatrick again with some stunning play down that left flank to beat his man, before his left footed cross zipped across the box for Logan Chalmers to run onto the end of at the back post to smash it goal wards to net his 5th goal of the season in all competitions. There was a couple of late scares of an equaliser for Raith in the dying minutes of the game. Jack Hamilton had a chance to level the scoring around 10 minutes from time, but couldn’t sort his feet out and the ball hit his leg and sailed over the bar from close distance. Merely just a couple minute after this, a cross from wide right nearly floated into Josh Clarke’s goal, but his palm to divert it only led to another chance for Paul McMullan, with the attacker seeing his effort cannon off of the crossbar. Raith piled on further pressure, with the ball falling to Jordan Doherty in acres of space in the final minute of regulation time, but his half volley hit the side netting and Raith’s hopes of a point on the road evaporated. Partick Thistle: Clarke 5, Reading 6, Ashcroft 5, Chalmers 8 (Lawless 3), Crawford 6 (Turner 4), O’Reilly 6, Fitzpatrick 9 , McPherson 6, Stanway, Watt 8 (Samuel 4), Lets’osa 7 (McBeth 2) Raith Rovers: Rae 5, Hanlon 5, Fordyce 5, Matthews 6 , Mullin 6 (Vaughan 3), McMullan 8, Brown 6 (Hamilton 3), Byrne 5, Doherty 7, Easton 7 (Chin 3), Stevenson 5

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Dons crash, burn and drop into Conference League in Bucharest

FCSB 3 Aberdeen 0 (FCSB win 5-2 on aggregate) Aberdeen have been consigned to UEFA Europa Conference League football this season as they went down to Romanian side FCSB in the Europa League Playoff round. The Dons return to group phase football for the first time since 2023, where they also found themselves in European football’s third tier competition, in a campaign which produces memorable wins over Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt but ultimately no qualification for the latter stages. Jimmy Thelin’s side did well to keep the tie alive last week at Pittodrie, having gone down 2-0 in the second half of the first leg, yet they would get no better opportunity to go ahead for the first time in the tie in the opening minutes of the game, when striker Ester Sokler, who scored a 90th minute equaliser last week, trickled a rebounded effort into the hands of goalkeeper Stefan Tarnovanu who gracefully collected the ball into his hands from six yards out. Aberdeen more than went toe to toe with the Romanian hosts for large parts of the first half, with Ante Palaversa firing a half volley over the bar and summer recruit Adil Aouchiche looking threatening down the left hand side at one stage, yet in equal measure they also got out of jail with Dimitar Mitov rushing to clear a Nicky Devlin backpass, and FCSB failing to make Graeme Shinnie pay after the Dons captain was lackadaisical in possession. With just five minutes to go until half time and Aberdeen looking to go into the break with the tie still level, disaster struck in the most frustrating and cruelest of fashions. David Miculescu was sent through and beat the already booked Alexander Jensen to the through ball, falling to the ground and the ball hitting the arm of the Dane. The referee waved play on, but VAR intervened and perhaps unfairly, the referee pointed to the spot and gave Jensen his marching orders, before Darius Olaru tucked away the penalty to give the hosts the lead. With the man advantage, the second half was all FCSB and they quickly made their dominance count. Adrian Sut picked up the ball from outside the area, and he ferociously struck the ball to fire it passed the Bulgarian in the Aberdeen net to double his side’s advantage who looked to be in a rush to make the UEFA Europa League. Just on the hour mark, Aberdeen fans would have been forgiven if they started to watch the game from behind their couches, when Olaru netted his second of the evening with big thanks to a deflection. Fans across Scotland’s minds at this stage would have been fearing the worst for Aberdeen, given what happened to Rangers in their away tie last night, but the Reds stood firm to keep the scoreline at a minimum. It was degree of inevitability that the Dons would end up in the Conference League and so it proved to be in the end, with FCSB taking the win overall. FCSB: Tarnovanu 6, Cretu 7, Ngezana 7, Popescu 7 (Miculescu 3), Radunovic 6, Lixandru 6, Șut 8 (Chriches 2), Miculescu 6, Olaru 9 (Alhassan 5), Tanase 7 (Politic 3), Birligea 6 (Albec 2) Aberdeen: Mitov 4, Devlin 5, Milne 5, Knoester 4, Jensen 2, Palaversa 6 (Yengi 3), Aouchiche 6, Shinnie 5, Keskinen 6 (Milanovic 3), Polvara 5 (Nilsen 4), Sokler 4 (Clarkson 5)   

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