Bristol Rovers - After Match Reaction
Tuesday 20th July 2010
Thistle brought their pre-season preparation to an end with a 2-0 home defeat against Bristol Rovers in a game watched by a crowd of just under 1,000.
As pre-season matches tend to be this was a less than enthralling encounter but still a, yes time for that phrase again, useful exercise for both teams. The final score of 2-0 in favour of the visitors probably flattered then a little with the Bristol Rovers website describing Thistle as “tougher opponents than Greenock Morton were on Saturday” whom they beat 3-1.
It’s the reaction of our manager Ian McCall though that www.ptfc.co.uk sought though after the game.
“These types of games are in many respects a necessary evil but that was a more than useful exercise for us. I think before they scored their first goal they had one chance while we had a couple of wee things that in all honesty you couldn’t really call chances. The first goal that they scored was a good goal but I thought that their second goal put a bit of an unfair slant on things. It was though, as I said, a worthwhile workout even though there wasn’t much in the way of goalmouth action which tends to be the case in pre-season matches where you often try things that you wouldn’t do in a competitive fixture.”
“I thought that the players did well. I thought that they looked fit and looked not sharp. Not perhaps quite match sharp just yet but that will come.”
“Looking at pre-season as a whole and not just tonight I can’t fault the players for their effort. They know that we are short of bodies but they have just got on with things and worked their socks off which they did again tonight. As I said previously I felt that their second goal put an unfair reflection on the final score.”
“It’s frustrating that we have about half a team of players, good experienced players, sitting in the stand because of injury but at the same time it was pleasing to see a number of players from our under 19 side from last season, some of whom are still eligible to play for the under 19s this season, on the pitch. We need to nurture these boys on and we don’t want to throw them all in because that would be detrimental to their development as players but bringing these players through has to be the way forward for us.”
