Saturday 16th November, 2019 at 6:37pm
A place in the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup semi-finals was the prize for Partick Thistle as they travelled to take on Stenhousemuir this afternoon and it was a prize that they grabbed with both hands. A 4-1 triumph over the Warriors secured the Jags’ place in the final four of the cup as the Maryhill men manoeuvred their way past their lower league opposition. Reece Cole opened the scoring in the first half with his first goal in Jags colours, however, the hosts fought back and drew level in the 68th minute through David Hopkirk. That only seemed to wake Thistle up though and the visitors were back in front two minutes later as Gary Harkins fired home before Craig Slater and Kenny Miller added to the advantage. That makes it back-to-back wins for the Jags and gaffer, Ian McCall, spoke to ptfc.co.uk after full-time and he started by reflecting on the 90 minutes as a whole with his side now safely in the semi-final draw.
“It was a very tough game which is exactly what we expected but we did well to get the win. We had a few boys coming in and I don’t think any of them did themselves any harm with that.
“The key was probably Gary scoring when he did, after they’d equalised and they had their tails up a bit. It came at the perfect time to put us back in control and from then on we were the only team that looked like scoring.
“Ultimately, it was all about winning and getting into a semi-final for us so we’re delighted to win and to get four goals on the way is an added bonus.”
Ian said that he liked what he saw from his side in the first half but felt they probably should have been further ahead at the break.
“They were always going to start with energy and passion and that’s what they did but we weathered the storm pretty well and got the game under control. Then we started to create and although we did get ahead before half time I thought we should have at least one more.”
McCall spoke to the quality of Reece Cole who once again impressed having returned to the side last week in the league win over Morton.
“Reece can really play and he would have been in the team a month ago if it hadn’t been for that knock he picked up. He’s still got plenty to work on in a few different areas but he’s got an awful lot of ability and I enjoyed watching him today.”
The Jags boss then looked ahead to next Saturday as Thistle start their Scottish Cup campaign against Penicuik Athletic at the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill.
“Hopefully we can win that one to add to the momentum we have at the moment but it will be another difficult game. They beat Stenny 3-0 which tells you they have quality and we’ll have to be on our game to beat them.”
A more in depth video interview with Ian McCall is available to Jagzone subscribers now as well as reaction from Scott Fox and Tam O’Ware – log in to view.
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