By Sean Saranczuk
August 3 2002

Partick Thistle and Dundee United fought out a goalless draw on the opening day of the SPL season at Firhill. Partick Thistle and Dundee United fought out a goalless draw on the opening day of the SPL season at Firhill.

The home side had the best of the game in terms of possession and pressure, but could not find a way past a resolute United defence well marshalled by impressive debutant Kevin McGowne.

First to threaten was United's Danny Griffin, whose seventh-minute free-kick effort from the left drew a good save from Thistle keeper Kevin Budinauckas.

At the other end, a driven ball from the right into the United box from Jamie Mitchell caused some problems, with McGowne happy to simply clear his lines.

In the 15th minute, Thistle striker Scott McLean cleverly knocked the ball back to Martin Hardie for the midfielder to shoot from only six yards - but United keeper Paul Gallacher reacted quickly to make an impressive block.

Out of the blue on 32 minutes, a snap shot by Griffin from 30 yards had Budinauckas diving smartly down to his right-hand post to smother.

United should have taken the lead five minutes into the second half when Griffin's pass sent Anastasios Venetis clear through on goal, but the midfielder hesitated before shooting straight at Budinauckas from 10 yards.

To their credit, Thistle kept pressing, but the ball was just thrown into the United box, with McGowne and Jim Lauchlan equal to each one.

Thistle defender Alan Archibald fired wide from 25 yards just after the hour, then Alex Burns' angled shot from just inside the box was easily saved by Gallacher before Hardie blazed over the bar from the penalty spot when he had time to take the ball down.