Saturday 24th October, 2015 at 3:04pm
After a disappointing draw against ten man Hamilton Accies, ptfc.co.uk caught up with Thistle manager to get his reaction on the 90 minutes.
“I don’t think we played well at all. We had been passing the ball well against 11 men, but struggled badly when they went down to 10 men. The extra man didn’t encourage us forward to attack them which is extremely frustrating.
“When we took the lead, I thought it was a good chance for us to build on it but we didn’t. Instead we got deeper and deeper and Accies scored what was a deserved equaliser. We were aware of their threat and we knew they had real character, especially since they got a draw last week in similar circumstances.”
It was a strange 90 minutes for Thistle with young goalkeeper Ryan Scully forced on as a substitute after 30 minutes.
“Ryan did well when he came on. It was hard for him to come on in the fashion he did and to make his first appearance at Firhill in almost three years is daunting. He had some nerves, which is understandable but he made a couple of good saves. There was one at the end, when we were hanging on a bit, which kept us level and made sure we got the point at the end of the game.
“Tomas took a sore one on his ankle and we thought he might have been able to continue to half time. It turns out that he wasn’t able to and we had to get him off the pitch. He’ll be heading home in a protective boot to keep the weight off it and we’ll assess him on Monday to see the damage.”
Today also saw a debut Thistle goal for number 99, Mathias Pogba and Alan was pleased to see him get off the mark.
“It’s good for Mathias to get his first goal. He’s been great for us over the last couple of weeks and, although he didn’t have the greatest game today, he showed good play to ghost in and poke the ball home for the opening goal.
“It’s good to see that he has gotten over his injury problems from earlier in the season. His hamstrings have held up well in the last three fixtures and we’re getting him to full fitness. It’s good to have a more physical option up front against bigger defences.”
All in all, Alan agreed with the assessment that it was two points dropped but was keen to take the positives from the game.
“I’d agree it was two points dropped. We had a good chance in the first half through Steven Lawless. David Amoo also had an opportunity before Accies went down to ten men. We created a lot of chances in and around the penalty area, but didn’t create anything clear.
“It’s two points dropped, however we didn’t play well and emerged from the game unbeaten. That takes our run to three games and we’ll be looking to extend that to four, hopefully with a win rather than a draw, next weekend against Hearts.”
