Aberdeen 4 - 2 Partick Thistle

Outlook Brighter After Win Over "Jags "

IT must have been a pleasant change for Aberdeen F.C. supporters to find goals for the home team unrationed at Pittodrie on Saturday. The 4-2 success against Partick Thistle was the Dons' first at home for more than three months.

It enabled them to equal their best scoring performance of the season - they drew 4-4 with Clyde on October 23 - and was another big step in the club's fight for survival. Two successive victories have made a tremendous difference, and the outlook is much more promising.
Considering that goals came freely, the game lacked something. An unprecedented run of injuries was partly responsible, and in this respect Partick Thistle were worse off than Aberdeen.
Davidson, Thomson, Wright and McKenzie all required attention, and there were so many changes that it was almost impossible to keep track of them.
Aberdeen of course, didn't escape scot-free. Harris (cut above an eye) and McLaughlin (leg injury) were added to the already alarming list of Pittodrie casualties. McLaughlin didn't look as if he would be fit for this week's game at Coatbridge.

New Hope

The last two matches have given Aberdeen new hope, and the man who has carried the torch of inspiration is Williams. He neutralised Partick's early lead on Saturday, and even when playing in an unaccustomed position at right half back he proved a will-to-win example which his mates did their best to follow.
Emery, too, has made a difference. He lacks ball control, but is gaining in confidence, and Forsyth, a greatly improved player, found it a full-time job to look after the Pittodrie leader.
The result was that the home inside men had more freedom of movement, and Williams, Harris and Rice (who went to inside left early on) all played their part in opening up the Thistle defence, in which young Gibb at left back shaped like a future international player.
He was easily the best back afield. The continual alterations in Thistle's line-up meant that wingers McKenzie and Walker didn't get a chance to test the home full backs fully, but even so there were times when Ancell and McKenna were inclined to get flustered under pressure.

Williams Levels

Thistle scored in seven minutes, Davidson's shot from a free kick about twenty-two yards out being deflected past Curran. When Williams put the scores level in twenty minutes Ledgerwood was out of his Charge to block a shot by Emery, who actually had something to do with all Aberdeen's goals.
He scored the second himself in twenty-five minutes, beating McGowan and lashing a left-foot shot into the net, and seven minutes later he cutely interchanged with Hather to send the English winger through for his first goal in the league side.
The crippled Thomson, lying unmarked on the right, reduced the leeway soon after the interval, and for a spell Thistle looked as likely to score as Aberdeen. Emery, however, settled the issue in thirty-two minutes.
He fastened on when Forsyth missed his kick and placed the ball to the far corner of the net as the goalkeeper came out to narrow the angle. That was the end of Thistle, who cannot be too happy about the outcome of this week's tie against Rangers in view of their bad luck in the matter of injuries.

Source: Press & Journal, 28th February 1949