Partick Thistle Football Club

Victory on Saturday took up to second spot in the First Division. The general consensus was that Thistle weren’t at their best against Morton but often the test of the mettle of a team is their ability to win when not at their best. Manager Ian McCall spoke to www.ptfc.co.uk earlier this morning to provide his assessment on the 90 minutes.

“I always felt that Saturday’s game against Morton was a really important one for us. Much more important than Wednesday’s game with Rangers. “

“It was a game where there was an expectation that we would win the match and it was really a case of finding a way to win the game. We weren’t at our best on Saturday but I felt that we were worthy winners in the end. I thought that we played a bit better in the second half than we had done so in the first half. In the first 45 minutes I felt that we played the way that Morton played the game. That’s not intended as a criticism of Morton. Every team has the right to play the game whatever way they want and Morton have a particular type of game. “

“After taking the lead it was disappointing to concede an equaliser so soon before half-time. It was just our luck that Simon Storey was off the pitch getting treatment at the time and it was no coincidence that the goal came from the area of the pitch where Simon would have been had he been on the pitch.”

“We needed to make changes at half-time to impose our way of playing on the game and it was with that in mind that I brought on Simon Donnelly at half-time. I had hoped to leave Simon for Rangers game but the way that the game was going meant we had to look towards him earlier that we had planned. It worked though as I felt that Simon brought a new dimension to our game and he played a big part in our eventual victory.”

Thoughts now start to turn towards Wednesday’s eagerly anticipated fixture with Rangers in the Co-Operative Insurance Cup. There were a few injuries picked up against Morton and Ian was able to give us some early teams news.

“We had thought that Gary Harkins had little chance of being fit enough to play but at the moment we would rate him at 50/50. Willie Kinniburgh and Simon Storey picked up head knocks on Saturday but they are both absolutely fine.”