Big bawl game fails to inspire sad Jags

Alloa Athletic...1 Partick thistle...0 If Robert Duvall needs some hyperbolic crowd noise for his football film he should give Jags manager John Lambie a call, he's a furious few hundred all on his own.

That would, however, ensure The Match of an adult rating, such was the machine-gun stream of his expletives directed at his own players. It's a wonder they turn up at work on a Monday, or refrain from taking him to an industrial tribunal for harassment.

It's not just his lungs which get a week's exercise in a half, his touchline callisthenics are worthy of an exercise video all on their own. He chomped furiously throughout, those trademark cheroots are gone, he's given up smoking entirely, according to one of his young players, "but another couple of games like that and he'll be back on." said the lad ominously.

The first half's most dramatic scene, however, centred on two somewhat unlikely players, referee Douglas Somers and Thistle's Des McKeown.

It was one to make you wince, the ref encountering the Jags' man's Kung-fu elbow after almost half an hour and leaving after several minutes on the turf to have his nose rearranged. Play was held up for 12 minutes until a further official was summoned from Sauchie.

In a match between the Jags and the Wasps you would expect more than the one sting, and even that was somewhat suspiciously rendered.

It came in the 76th minute when Willie Irvine chipped over the Thistle back line to big, shaven-headed Martin Cameron, looking a bit like a heavy from The Bill, and in a seemingly offside position, who burgled a goal for Alloa, running it past the advancing Kevin Budinauckis.

Ten minutes earlier the 'keeper had made the save of the match, again from Cameron, when he raced out to parry a fierce shot after the striker had been put through on his own by a charging 30-yard run by defender David Beaton and the most delicate of chips to his feet.

Thistle had looked the more likely in the first half, making and spurning a series of chances, Isaac English's speed unsettling the Alloa back four. But as the game wore on the visitors' impetus and commitment seemed to wilt and the home side took charge.

The Firhill faithful, who looked to be outnumbering the locals, were silenced, save for the odd loud comment towards the technical area and the Dervish in charge, whose venom seemed noticeably to leak as the fame died. And Lambie? Ninety minutes nearer a Manikin, probably.

o It was the day of Old King Goals as the pensioners of the penalty box dusted down their boots and defied age and gravity.

Colin McGlashan, who was scoring goals when Ally McCoist was still at school, was at it again as Arbroath beat Clyde 2-1 at Gayfield.

The visitors took the lead in the 40th minute through Brian Carrigan, but that was wiped out three minutes after the turnaround when Barry Sellars struck. McGlashan popped up with the winner eight minutes from time.

Another of soccer's golden oldies, Willie Watters, was the match- winner in Stenhouse-muir's 2-1 triumph over Stirling Albion at Ochilview. The Forthbank side took the lead in the 12th minute through Alan Aitken, but that was nullified in the 31st minute by Ross Hamilton.

Watters had the final say when he snatched the winner in the 65th minute.

Fans at Stair Park spent a despairing 90 minutes hoping for a goal in the clash between Stranraer and Ross County. What they would have given for a McGlashan or a Watters.

Hamilton Accies fans might have settled for a scoreless confrontation after they nosedived 3-0 to Queen of the South at Firhill.

Brian Caldwell fired Queens ahead in the 16th minute, Billy Findlay added a second after 80 minutes before veteran striker Steve Mallan, sizzled in a third seven minutes from time.

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