Annan - After Match Reaction
Saturday 31st July 2010
The winning goal this afternoon was late in arriving, extra-time was just a mere seven minutes away, but was all the more welcome for that fact. When Chris Erskine slipped the ball through to Simon Donnelly to score the sigh of relief from the Thistle fans that made up the majority of the 1,025 crowd was audible.
Despite the lateness of the winning goal the general consensus after the game was that we had deserved to make it through to the next round. That was certainly the view of manager Ian McCall when he spoke with www.ptfc.co.uk after the game.
“We are delighted to have progressed to the next round which was after all the objective at the start of the day. The wind made it a horrible day to play a game of football and we always knew that we are going to get a tough game, again exactly the type of game we want at this stage of the season.”
“Although our winning goal was late in coming I never felt that we were in any serious trouble. Indeed we might have sealed the win a little earlier when Paul Cairney had an excellent chance. In fairness to Paul he has did just about everything right and was unlucky to see the ball strike the underside of the bar.”
“At the other end Bryn Halliwell has had scarcely a save to make throughout the 90 minutes and in general we defended well and I felt that we were very comfortable. I thought that both our full backs had excellent games, Paul Paton in particular, and that the two centre backs performed well.”
“ Over and above that here were a number of other positives to take from the game. It was good to see Iain Flannigan and Chris Erskine get some game. Liam Buchanan I thought did a lot better in the second half and his match sharpness is coming. It was a good finish from Simon Donnelly for the goal and excellent movement in the lead up to the goal.”
“We’ve bigger challenges to face this season especially with the league campaign starting in seven days but I was again impressed with the hard work the players put in against a side that make you work hard. I must also praise the Thistle fans who were absolutely fantastic throughout the game.”
