Partick Thistle 2 Ayr Utd 1

Partick scraped through to the semi finals of the Alba Challenge Cup after looking on easy street when they were two up after 33 minutes. It took a stunning save from Bryn Halliwell in the 88^th minute to secure progress for the home side.

Thistle made the best possible start when they took the lead in the third minute. Paul Paton sent a great cross swinging to the back post where it was a simple task for Kris Doolan to head past David Crawford in the Ayr goal.

The home side took heart from this and dominated the early possession although it was Halliwell who was called into action rather than Crawford. Andy Rodgers created space in the box which the keeper saved diving to his right.

Thistle were two ahead in 33 minutes thanks to another header from Doolan. This time the cross was provided by Liam Buchanan who chose to cross rather than shoot himself.

The lead was cut back by the Honest Men only three minutes later. Scott McLaughlin whipped a cross deep to the far post where Rodgers was on hand to head home from close range.

11 minutes after the break it looked as though Partick had been handed the chance to restore their two goal lead. Buchanan burst clean through and looked to be hauled down by Martin Campbell for a stonewall penalty but ref Steven O’Reilly was the only person in the ground who disagreed.

As the game wore on Ayr took control and in the dying minutes looked to have done enough to take the game to extra time. With two minutes left a Steven Reynolds cross was met by Mark Roberts whose side foot shot looked to have beaten Halliwell but the keeper threw himself across his goal and got a finger tip to the ball to turn it wide.

Ayr weren’t finished and a Rodgers overhead kick was blocked on the line by Jackie McNamara, and with almost the last kick of the ball McLaughlin saw a 25 yarder skim over the cross bar.

Ayr gaffer Brian Reid was disappointed after the game. He said: "It was a game of two halves, but we need to stop losing silly goal. But we have shown that when we play we can give teams a good game but we need to show more consistency over 90 minutes."