Friday 22nd November, 2019 at 1:12pm
In his long and successful career, Kenny Miller has taken on quite a number of different teams from across Britain and indeed Europe but he’ll have new opposition to face this weekend as Partick Thistle face Penicuik Athletic in the Scottish Cup third round. It’s something a bit different for the Maryhill men but the 39-year-old is looking forward to the challenge as he seeks the goal that will make him the quickest Jag to hit ten competitive goals since Stevie Lawless in 2012. Miller spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the game, starting with a discussion about cup games against teams from leagues below the Championship:
“It’s the fairytale of the Scottish Cup that teams like Penicuik can get through a few rounds and get a game like this one but that will just motivate them even more to keep that fairytale going which is why we have to be ready to do a professional job against them.
“At the end of the day, there’s 11 guys out there on the field trying to stop you from doing what you want to do. It’s something we spoke about before the Stenhousemuir game and even in that game, the score looks comfortable but across the game, it was quite tight and they’ll have been disappointed to have conceded so quickly after equalising.”
Kenny isn’t expecting an easy game but says that the team have no excuses not to put on a good display at home tomorrow.
“These games against lower league teams or even non-league teams are always going to be tough but the real bonus for us is that it’s at home, in front of our own fans. We’ve got a big pitch and the surface will be great so it’s taking away all of those little excuses like having to travel or the conditions and it’s up to us to go out there and put on a performance to get us into the fourth round.”
The striker noted that the visitors have nothing to lose and will be giving it their all right throughout the game.
“It’s a bit of a no-win situation for us in a way. If we go and win by three or four, that’s the expectation, but if we go to a replay or get beat, it’s a disaster so we just need to get the job done and look to continue our momentum back into the league.”
If Thistle can get the win against Penicuik, it will be three on the bounce for the Jags and Miller is hoping that there is a consistency developing.
“Too many times this season we’ve had a great result and then a couple of off games. That’s not acceptable; we need to be turning up every week.
“We’ve got a real chance now to put a run together. The win against Morton was fantastic with the heart we showed and we followed that up with a good away win at Stenny so now Penicuik is the next step.”
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