Partick Thistle Football Club

Although yesterday afternoon’s game with Dundee finished goalless it proved, second half especially, to be an entertaining affair with Thistle coming close to grabbing all three points right at the death.

Manager Jackie McNamara had undergone surgery on his knee the day before the game leaving Simon Donnelly to take charge in the dugout and it was the Thistle assistant manager that www.ptfc.co.uk spoke to after the game.

“That was a different experience for me and a new challenge and I enjoyed it.”

“I don’t think we can have any complaints about the effort the players put in today. It was a very positive reaction to a couple of disappointing results. We made a bit of a ropey start to the game and Dundee had some good chances and we got off the hook a bit. We changed the system a wee bit though and after that things were much better.”

“The wind made things difficult at times and the fact that Dundee had the better of the first half and ourselves the better of the second half perhaps tells its’ own story.”

“In our last two games we didn’t carry much of a threat but, although we didn’t score, that wasn’t the case today .We were creating opportunities today, especially in the second half, and that was a plus. We had three good chances and nearly snatched a win right at the end.”

But for the intervention of the Dundee goalkeeper Rab Douglas, not the first time he has excelled against Thistle, we would surely have taken at least one of those chances. Simon was fulsome in his praise of the Dundee keeper.

“It’s his ability to make saves like that that has given him the career in the game that he has had. I think though he was beaten by Kris Doolan’s header right at the end of the game. That hit the outside of the post rather than gone in, in off the post.”

The previous two games had seen Thistle concede late goals to lose the matches and Simon laughed when asked if he was worried when Dundee won a free kick directly in front of goal with time rapidly running out.

“Just a bit. It would have been hard not to be worried with the way things have been going recently. I turned to the Doc at that point and asked him how long there was to go and he told me two minutes. Thankfully it was straight at Scott Fox. I don’t think, the opening period of the game aside, that Dundee had us under too much pressure and I felt that we defended well in the game.”

To round things off Simon again took time to praise the efforts of the players.

“Paul Paton had to have injections to allow him to play today and you have to give him great credit for doing that. I think that sort of thing just epitomises the desire this group of young players, who are learning all the time, have to play. You can’t fault the effort that they are showing.”