Partick Thistle Football Club

The three points that we collected on Saturday against Falkirk were most welcome indeed. It wasn’t the prettiest Thistle performance that you are ever likely to witness but it was one full of hard work and honest endeavour. Despite what some manager’s might think it is those qualities that often allow you to win football matches.

The three points were most welcome and so too was the return of Martin Hardie who began his month long loan deal from St Johnstone in the best possible of fashions. It was clear that the affects of not having featured in a competitive first team fixture for the best part of a year caught up with Martin but in the 72 minutes he was on the park he had a big influence on events.

www.ptfc.co.uk spoke to a happy Martin not long after the full-time whistle and he wasn’t hiding his pleasure at a place where he enjoyed great success in the past.

“It was brilliant to be back and it was great to start it with a win. I’m here until the middle of November which I think covers in total about five games. The last time I played here at Firhill it was obviously for St Johnstone and it’s been a few years since I played here for Thistle. I really enjoyed my time at Firhill in the past and although this loan deal is only for a month I always had a wee feeling that I would end up back here at some point in my career. There have been a couple of occasions in the past when that was close to happening but I always signed a new contract for St Johnstone. “

There has been some criticism of the Thistle performance in some quarters but most observers felt that it was a deserved three points.

“We knew that it was going to be tough as they like to play the ball from the back into midfield. We set ourselves up to be hard to beat and that’s what we proved to be. Falkirk took a lot of the possession which would probably be confirmed by the possession stats if anyone took a note of them. They didn’t create too many chances though and it’s goals not possession that win matches and we managed to do that. Hopefully after that win we can push on and get a few more under our belts in the next few weeks. ”

It was a tired Martin Hardie that was replaced by Martin Grehan with just less than 20 minutes of the game remaining but overall Martin was pleased to have made the contribution he did while he was on the park.

“I would loved to have played the full 90 minutes but that was my first competitive game in 11 months so it was good to have played for as long as I did.”

Finally, Martin was grateful for the warmth of the reception that he received from the Thistle fans.

“The welcome I got from the Thistle fans was great and it was good too to see so many familiar faces about the place.”