Partick Thistle Football Club

Thistle this evening left it late for the second time this season to see off Third Division opposition but while against Annan we struggled to create much in the way of clear cut chances that most certainly wasn’t the case this evening. The fact that it was the Berwick Rangers goalkeeper that collected the tournament sponsor’s Man of the Match award speaks volumes.

After the game www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Ian McCall who was just a little happier that he had been at the final whistle on Saturday.

“That should have been an awful lot more than just 2-1. I wanted the players to show tonight just how much we were all hurting, players, coaching staff, directors and staff, after Saturday’s performance against Raith Rovers and I would like to think that the supporters, who were excellent tonight, went away this evening aware of just how much we had been hurting.”

“I was delighted with the way my players worked tonight and I thought they moved the ball about the pitch this evening really well. I’ve been a manager for a long time and the longer the game went on the more I started to wonder if it was going to be one of those nights.”

“In the first half we had a number of very good chances before Berwick scored with just about their first chance. After they took the lead their goalkeeper, Ian McCaldon, went on to produce an inspired performance. It was ironic in a way that when we did score the winning goal it was from one of the hardest chances that we had.”

“When you look at some of the other scores tonight with Dundee, Cowdenbeath and Stirling Albion all going out to lower league opposition we are delighted to have made it through to the last eight where, as I’ve said before, the competition starts to get that bit more interesting.”

“As pleased as I am with the way that we played tonight, the players have been made aware in no uncertain terms that it does not make up for what happened on Saturday and that’s part of the reason why the players are in training tomorrow. It’s going to take a lot more than a win against Berwick Rangers, and no disrespect to them, to make up for the Raith Rovers game. It will need three of four really good performances in a row in the league to do that. We all have a lot to make up for, and I include myself in that, and on Saturday against Dundee we aim to start doing just that.”

The winning goal came via an unlikely source. Across his two spells as a Partick Thistle player David Rowson has made 182 appearances but his goal tonight was just his seventh in Thistle colours. On another night though we could quite easily have been talking about a David Rowson hat-trick.

“I managed to get into some good positions and I was delighted to get a goal. It was good to get forward into that type of position late in the game and even better to get the goal.”

Pick of a string of impressive saves from Berwick keeper Ian McCaldon was from a 25 yard thunderbolt from David.

“I think I’m destined never to score another goal like the one I did against Livingston a couple of seasons ago. I was cursing the Berwick goalkeeper, who I actually played with while I was at Livingston, when he saved that effort.”

 “I think after Saturday’s result we were all a little apprehensive and we needed a result tonight. Berwick are a stuffy side ,although they never really caused us too many problems, and in the end I think we did enough to get through.”