Saturday 28th September, 2019 at 7:08pm
The new Partick Thistle management team of Ian McCall, Alan Archibald and Neil Scally oversaw their first league match since being appointed on Monday as the Jags travelled to Inverness, claiming a vital three points at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium to kickstart their Ladbrokes Championship campaign. The Maryhill men got off to a terrific start as Dario Zanatta put them in front after ten minutes but a Jordan White goal in the 21st minute meant the teams went into the break level. Kenny Miller quickly re-established the away side’s advantage with his seventh goal of the season before Cammy Palmer sealed the triumph late on. Following the game, one third of the new management unit, Neil Scally, spoke to ptfc.co.uk beginning by summarising his feelings on what was an excellent victory for Thistle.
“To be completely honest, I felt Inverness shaded the first half and we rode our luck at times to make it into half-time at 1-1 but in the second half the boys were fantastic. For any team to come up here and get a result is great because they’ve been excellent at home this season. I think the fact we got that goal straight after the restart really boosted us towards the win.”
Joe Cardle and Kenny Miller were substituted relatively early on against Celtic on Wednesday with one eye on this afternoon’s clash and Scally reckons that decision paid off as the pair played key roles in a vital win for the Jags.
“Look, when you go to Celtic Park you’re going to do a lot of running and you have to put a real shift in so when that game is one of three in eight days, you have to manage the minutes. Obviously Kenny and Joe are two of our most creative players and we want to have them on the pitch as much as possible but I think when you see how they played today, we made the right choice in midweek.”
One of the other standouts for the Jags was Dario Zanatta who opened the scoring before going very close to another goal on a couple of occasions in the second half and Neil was very impressed with the Canadian.
“He probably could have had a hat-trick today but in fairness to Dario, his chances were ones which he really created for himself. He was excellent for Alloa last season and you can see from the way he dribbles and drives at defences he’s going to be a very important player for us this season.”
The new management team have only had a handful of training sessions with the squad so Scally was delighted to see the boys playing so well so early in Ian McCall’s second reign as Thistle boss.
“It was great to see for us; the way the guys took on board what we’ve been saying to them. On Wednesday I was struggling to remember everyone’s names and we didn’t feel fully prepared for a challenge like that but now we’re a bit more familiar and we’ve had a bit more time working with them so we now are looking forward to getting a full week of preparation ahead of the Queen of the South game.”
A more in depth video interview with Neil Scally is available to Jagzone subscribers now as well as Thistle players, Stuart Bannigan and Dario Zanatta – log in to view.
Jagzone subscribers will also be able to watch extended highlights of the game.
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