Stirling Reaction - McCall and MacBeth Speak
Saturday 29th November 2008
It may be something of a football cliché to say that the most important thing in a cup-tie is to make it through to the next round. From a Thistle perspective , however, there is no better summary of this afternoon's cup-tie at Forthbank Stadium.
On a bitterly cold afternoon there were more than a few Thistle brows receiving a metaphorical wipe at the full-time whistle.
There was certainly the air of a relived man surrounding Thistle manager Ian McCall when www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with him after the game.
"It's the Scottish Cup and we are delighted to be through to the next round especially when you see some of the results from elsewhere."
"It shouldn't be forgotten that the Thistle side that you saw today was a severely depleted one. We had about 6 or 7 players missing and with so many of them defenders it was perhaps expected that we might struggle defensively but at times we were all over the place at the back."
"I thought that Jonny Tuffey could have dealt a little better with the first Stirling goal and I spoke to him about that at the end of the game. He then went on a showed just what a good goalkeeper he is with 4 or 5 saves that kept us in the game."
"Just as Jonny was doing what was expected of him at one end so Liam Buchanan was doing what he is good at the other with the goal that ultimately took us through to the next round although he missed a couple of chances before then."
"We got a wee glimpse into the future of Partick Thistle when Ryan MacBeth came on towards the end of the game and I thought that he did well. Just as it was good to see a young player start out on their career it was also good to see an altogether more familiar face in the team with the return of Alan Archibald. Alan did well and he was pretty much playing on empty for awhile but typical Alan he kept on playing for as long as he could. We still aim to ease Alan back into regular football and the intention is to play him for a bout an hour of our Reserve game with Airdrie United on Tuesday."
It was naturally a memorable occasion for young Ryan MacBeth as the grin across he face as he spoke to www.ptfc.co.uk after the game.
"It was an amazing experience for me and after a brief taste of first team football I would like to taste even more. With the game tight at 2-1 I didn't think I was going to get the chance to come on but when I did I wasn't nervous and was just keen to show what I can do."
