Stirling - Post Match Reaction
Saturday 11th July 2009
This afternoon marked Thistle's first public pre-season match and following the 1-1 draw with Stirling www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Ian McCall for his thoughts on the 90 minutes.
"It was a good workout on a hot day and on a pitch that wasn't in good condition. Looking at the 90minutes as a whole I would say that there were some positives and some negatives. I don't think we are as solid as we want to be and we have a bit to go yet in terms of getting the kind of sharpness that we are looking for but it is still early days in terms of pre-season."
"You shouldn't read too much into these type of games but I was disappointed that we lost a goal from a set piece. As I've said we aren't as solid as I want us to be. Paul Paton hasn't been playing the way we want him to so far and we will have a chat with him during the week."
"We gave Liam Buchanan another 45 minutes today and he is absolutely fine. If anything I would say that I'm probably being over cautious with him. He will, however, get another hour against Dumbarton on Tuesday night and he will play next Saturday against Clyde as well."
"We started the second half with Stephen McKeown up front. The reason for doing so was simple. Jim Hamilton hasn't done any pre-season training at all and we knew that we would only get about 25 minutes from him. Even allowing for the limited time he was on the pitch you could see that his experience is going to be an asset to us. I was impressed too with Paul Cairney and Chris Erskine when they came on and the performance from Bryan Hodge."
"Today's game us another opportunity to have a look at the Spanish lad that we played against Queen's Park during the game. It's clear that he is a talented lad but I do wonder how he would deal with the type of football we play week in week out in the First Division. It could well be that although a good player he isn't quite what we are looking for."
