Raith Rovers 1 Partick Thistle 2

Last updated : 21 March 2006 By Footymad Previewer
Partick Thistle managed to sneak past Raith Rovers thanks to Jimmy Gibson's superb last minute strike when the midfielder curled the ball into the top corner.

Thistle seemed the more determined out of the two sides and pressed the play with Rovers reverting to a counter-attacking style hoping that the superb passing of Steve Bonar and the fluid running of Paul McManus could breach the Thistle defence.

It took until the 40th minute for the first real chance to be created when a scramble in the box saw Mark Roberts shoot towards goal only for Bonar to pop up and acrobatically clear the ball off the line just as the away side were convinced they had taken the lead.

Thistle did manage to take the lead three minutes after the re-start when a corner from Rickie Gillies found the head of Sandy Hodge at the back post who finished with a powerful header.

Raith began to fight back and the mercurial Bonar should have equalised when his rasping drive from 20 yards was superbly cleared off the line by Scott McCulloch.

Raith managed to equalise with five minutes to go when Brian Fairbairn swung a ball to the back post for Todd Lumsden to race on to and slot home with an accurate strike.

Raith's defence turned off for a split second in the last minute allowing Gibson space around the edge of the box to finish in style.