AS an epitaph to season 2008/2009 it was perhaps fitting that Partick Thistle's SPL promotion bid came to an end with a 1-0 defeat at Firhill.
AS an epitaph to season 2008/2009 it was perhaps fitting that Partick Thistle's SPL promotion bid came to an end with a 1-0 defeat at Firhill.
Ultimately St Johnstone's convincing 3-1 victory over Morton made the result against Airdrie irrelevant, but it has been a surprising vulnerability on home soil at key junctures of the campaign that has cost Thistle promotion.
But by improving on the last campaign's sixth place finish with an impressive runners-up slot the Jags have undoubtedly over-achieved.
Finishing above such bloated and well stocked squads like those found in the changing rooms of Palmerston, Dens, Cappielow and East End Parks are ample evidence of that.
Ian McCall's Thistle - an amalgam of lower league snips, experienced journeyman and potential stars in the making - have by quite some distance offered the greatest value for money in the Scottish game's second tier.
As he took stock of his side's second-place finish, the manager admitted he now faces a battle on two fronts.
The first is to hold on to his current squad; the second to convince the Firhill board that he is only three players short of a decisive promotion bid next time around.
McCall said: "I'd like to think I can talk the majority of the boys into having another crack at promotion next season.
"If the board give me the money to bring in maybe three players over the summer I think that would be great.
"The expectation next season will be to go on and win the championship, but whether we will have the tools to do that I don't know.
"We certainly need another striker but strikers cost money and that is something that is in short supply.
"It looks like Dundee will spend heavy and so will Morton and the team that comes down, but we have been fantastic and I'm very proud of these players.
"The players' efforts this season has been nothing short of heroic. We can come again."
McCall reckons that his budget side's final ranking of second is his biggest achievement in football.
He said: "Finishing second in this league with the size of the squad we have is as good an achievement as I have had in the game.
"But fair play to Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty, St Johnstone have been the best team over the course and they deserve their promotion."
McCall's assessment that he needs at least one other quality striker is bang on the money. For two seasons now Liam Buchanan's troublesome groin has left Thistle bereft of the oxygen of goals just when they needed them.
A cruel irony then that Simon Lynch, the man turned away as a trialist at the beginning of the season in favour of Mark Roberts who was later sent to Ayr, claimed the 14th goal of his season to put the full stop on Thistle's campaign.
Thistle have remained unbeaten in eight games on the road in the second half of the season only to lose four times at fortress Firhill, with the most damming defeat to demoted derby rivals Clyde.
In the expectancy that McCall has created in Maryhill by another demonstration of his managerial Midas touch, the Jags boss will without doubt need the board to dig deep into their impoverished coffers if he is to make the quantum leap that will land SPL football next season.
And so to the action such as there was. After a dull opening, with 24 minutes gone news swept through the Jackie Husband stand that Morton had taken the lead at St Johnstone and the Jags support were infected with a frenzy that brought the biggest cheer of the day.
Sadly moments later news of a Saints equaliser doused the fervour of the Firhill faithful with a brutal reality check.
The final blow came at the death when Scott McLaughlin's finely weighted back-post pass was tapped home by Lynch as Airdrie gave themselves a shot at complete survival on the final day and consigned Clyde to the abyss of Second Division football.
