The Manager's Reaction
Monday 23rd March 2009
With the dust just about settled on yesterday's 1-1 draw with Dundee www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Ian McCall for his assessment on a tense and often frantic 90 minutes.
"Whist incredibly disappointed with the size of the crowd yesterday I would like to thank those Thistle fans that did make it along. I thought that the atmosphere was absolutely brilliant, the best that I can recall it being. The players were given terrific support even when we were 1-0 down. The fans never gave up on them and they got their reward with Kevin McKinlay's equaliser."
"While praising the fans I need to also give the players a massive pat on the head. Yesterday I felt was the first time that the size of our squad had a real impact upon our performance. We were down to just 16 players, as we have been for some time, and to have 2 centre backs on the bench wasn't ideal. Of those players we had available Alan Archibald and Willie Kinniburgh both need surgery and Marc Twaddle and John Robertson weren't fully fit."
"It wasn't a great performance from either ourselves or Dundee on Sunday but I can't praise highly enough the character that my players, many of them playing in unfamiliar roles, exhibited. A manager can't ask for much more than to see his players display the courage and character that they did yesterday."
"I think that is a tremendous achievement to be involved in a title chase with 6 games of the season and we aim to be involved right down to the end of the season. Take it from me we are still in with a real chance this season. We have a week off at a perfect time for us and we will be going up to McDiarmid Park on April 4th with confidence and belief."
