Wednesday 13th March, 2019 at 1:53pm
In what was a well-contested Scottish Cup quarter-final replay, Partick Thistle came up just short as they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Hearts at Tynecastle last night. The Jags had taken an early lead through Scott McDonald but the game was turned on its head before the break with Uche Ikpeazu and Sean Clare scoring to put the hosts ahead.
The Maryhill men had a couple of last minute penalty claims turned away, the second of which looked like it should have been awarded, however, it wasn’t to be and Thistle were beaten. The team left the left the capital with its collective head held high though, having gone toe-to-toe with their Premiership adversaries over 180 minutes.
Following the final whistle, Thistle goalscorer, Scott McDonald, spoke to ptfc.co.uk, and began by reflecting on the 90 minutes on the whole and discussing the match’s penalty incidents.
“We’re all obviously gutted that we couldn’t get the win. What an opportunity it was; a place at Hampden was there for the taking but we shoot ourselves in the foot a wee bit with the manner of the goals conceded.
“There wasn’t much between the teams for most of the game and at times we showed our quality with some neat passing but we feel that we were hard done by in terms of the penalty decisions. They got two; the first one was a definite penalty but the second one was soft and then when you see our claims, you can’t help but compare.
“The second one on Miles was a clumsy challenge but the first one, where Miles is going through and the defender is all over him, isn’t given because he doesn’t go down. There’s definitely a problem there because you’re told not to go down and to stay on your feet but it seems like you only get fouls if you do go down. Miles gets penalised in the end for trying to stay standing.”
Despite the team’s frustrations, Scott thinks that they need to take pride from the way they played over the two games as they were only edged out by the odd goal against a good top flight outfit.
“We’ve got to take belief from these games because it shows that we are a good side. When I joined, I said that I was excited to play as part of this squad because there is so much talent at this football club. It’s now down to us to get our heads back in league mode and try to get ourselves away from the trouble at the bottom of the table.”
McDonald made it two in two with his goal in the 16th minute following the opening goal he scored on Saturday after four minutes against Dundee United. The Australian feels like he’s starting to find a rhythm as a Jag.
“I feel like I’m getting fitter and sharper with every game. I’ve been really enjoying playing football again and getting a few goals has made it even better. On top of that, I’ve loved being part of this group of boys because it’s a great bunch and that’s been a big thing for me as well.”
Thistle number 10 is now looking forward to getting back into the league for the run-in starting this Saturday with a tough away game at the Falkirk Stadium.
“It’s a massive game, there’s no hiding from that. We now have nine games to play but we have to take them one at a time. We also have to go at these games with the same determination and attitude that we had tonight.
“Falkirk are a team who, like us, have improved since the turn of the year and although they got beat by Ross County, they’ll still be full of confidence so we’ll need to produce another good performance to come away with the three points.”
Scott finished by complementing the large travelling support which came to Edinburgh to support the team last night saying that they’re support means a lot to the players.
“They’ve been fantastic since I’ve been here. They were singing for most of the game and it does motivate the players when you see such a great away support behind the goal, we’re just disappointed that we couldn’t get the win for them this evening.”
