Thursday 25th July, 2019 at 12:40am
The Betfred Cup group stages came to a close for Partick Thistle as they took on Clyde at the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill. The Jags knew that victory would secure their place in the draw for the last 16 and that is what they got. Two goals from Shea Gordon either side of a Kenny Miller header were enough to see the Maryhill men to the win despite a Tony Wallace header and Stuart Bannigan’s own goal keeping things tight. Thistle will now definitely top Group F regardless of games still to be played and Jags boss, Gary Caldwell, spoke to ptfc.co.uk after his side’s triumph:
“Some of our play was superb tonight but we decided to make it more difficult than it had to be. First half, they didn’t really have a kick and we gift them a goal from the corner which is disappointing. In the second half, I thought we upped it for 20 minutes and we looked like we were turning the screw but again we gift them a route back into the game.
“For us, the main focus is being ready for the first league game of the season and we’ve seen things over these group games that we still need to work on and we will ahead of the game at Alloa. However, we’re through to the next round which is what we were aiming for at the start of the group so we’re pleased with that.”
Gary then went into a bit more detail on the second Clyde goal which saw Stuart Bannigan net an own goal to make the game 3-2.
“It was a mistake which we have to learn from. We’re still far off being the finished article but there have been signs of improvement in each of our games which is why making these mistakes now is better than doing it in the third or fourth league game of the season.”
Caldwell complimented the application of his team, who he felt gave everything they could over the 90 minutes to secure the all-important victory.
“Everyone was pushing right until the end. The work that the boys are doing; we’re asking them to push themselves to the limit both in training and in games. We now have a week and a half to continue the work we’ve been doing with the boys to prepare for the league opener.
“We have energy right throughout the team and it’s one of our big strengths. We get it from midfield, from wide areas, we’re relentless when we attack and we can win the ball back quickly too which is excellent.”
The manager then gave us an update on the condition of James Penrice, who dropped out of the starting line-up at the eleventh hour, and Cammy Palmer, who came off at half-time.
“James felt pain in his ankle yesterday and had to pull out after the warm-up so we’ll have to look at that tomorrow. Cammy’s seems to be just a dead leg. He wasn’t moving well at the end of the first half and our physio said it would only stiffen up over the break so we took him off.
“Thankfully, we now have four days before we start full training again so we can work with the guys individually and manage these knocks ahead of the league season starting.”
A more in depth video interview with Gary Caldwell is available to Jagzone subscribers now as well as reaction from Shea Gordon and Raffa De Vita.
Highlights will be added shortly and will be free for Jagzone subscribers.
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Article Copyright © 2019. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk
