Partick Thistle Football Club

When www.ptfc.co.uk spoke to manager Ian McCall ahead of this afternoon's fixture with Inverness Caledonian Thistle he was quick to emphasise the importance of the run of matches that we face either side of Christmas and New Year. With that in mind the significance of our come from behind win against Inverness today shouldn't be underestimated.

When we spoke to the manager after the game he had the look of a man who had gone through a whole host of emotions during the course of the 90 minutes.

"First of all I have to say that I thought that Inverness were the better side in the first half even though we had a spell of about 15 minutes or so during which we created two excellent chances and two or three half chances."

" We made a wee change at half-time and that seemed to pay dividends for us and in the end I thought that we were worthy winners. Returning to a point that I've made a few times over the course of the season I thought that we could have secured the win earlier than we did had we paid a bit more care and attention in the closing stages. Had we done so we all could have had a much more relaxed last five minutes than we did."

"As far as I am concerned today's result was a great result for us against a side that I am sure will be challenging at the end of the season. Today's game was the first time this season that we have come from behind and gone on and won a game and I think that is significant. The win today certainly sets things up nicely for next Saturday's game against Dundee. That is a match that I hope we can get as many Thistle fans out to as possible."

"Returning to this afternoon's match one thing that I know Thistle fans will be asking about was the decision not to include Paul Paton in the team. This was partially a tactical decision. Inverness are a big strong team. They are physical and good in the air and we felt that John Robertson was perhaps better equipped to deal with that than Paul is. It was also a decision made on the basis that we have felt that Paul hasn't, of late, been performing to the standard that he knows that he can. That's the benefit of having  a squad where there is competition for places. Paul now knows that he will need to perform well to get back into the team and keep his place there when he does."

"Elsewhere today I thought that both Jamie Adams and Ian Maxwell were terrific in the centre of our defence. Jamie's best position I still feel is centre midfield but he certainly didn't let us down in the middle of defence today and he was also a goal threat at the other end of the pitch."

"I must also say a word about Steve Lovell who demonstrated the quality that he has with an extremely well taken goal today."