Thistle dumped by St Andrews

Oct 13 2011 by Kieran Westbrook, West Lothian Courier

St Andrews 4 , Bathgate Thistle 2

A GARY Sutherland hat-trick plunged Bathgate Thistle to tenth after St Andrews handed them their second straight Superleague defeat.

Thistle’s hopes of bouncing back from last weekend’s 2-1 loss to Hawthorn were in tatters barely ten minutes after kick off after the home side made a whirlwind start.

The visitors were a goal down in the third minute when Gary Sutherland latched onto a through ball and slipped it past Francis Carlin and into Thistle’s net.

Four minutes later St Andrews doubled their lead when Gregor Buchanan’s pass back deceived the Thistle keeper and ended up in the back of the net.

It was a nightmare of a start for Thistle and one from which they would not recover.

And things didn’t improve as the Fifers added a third before half time.

Thistle shot-stopper Carlin appeared to have dealt with Gary Sutherland’s header but the ball slipped from his grasp and landed over the goal line.

Bathgate pulled one back on the hour mark and gave them a glimmer of hope when Lee Johnstone scored from the spot after Marco Andreoni had been brought down.

But Sutherland restored St Andrew’s advantage seven minutes from the end when he scored his third and St Andrew’s fourth goal effectively ending the game.

Ryan Johnstone got a consolation goal for Bathgate in injury time but it was a case of too little, too late.

This latest defeat leaves Bathgate in third bottom place in the Superleague table with only Forfar and Carnoustie below them.