Docherty looking for another impressive display on the road

Monday 25th October, 2021 at 4:24pm

In a game where chances were few and far between, it was Thistle skipper Ross Docherty who probably came closest to scoring as the Jags drew 0-0 with Dunfermline Athletic at Firhill on Saturday. The number 23 brought the ball down beautifully and lifted it over the leg of a Pars player before taking aim from 20 yards. His curling attempt looked destined to find the top corner and break the deadlock, however, Owain Fon Williams had other ideas and the ex-Hamilton goalkeeper was able to tip over the bar en route to a clean sheet. Now the Maryhill men turn their attentions to Morton and a midweek trip to Cappielow for more cinch Championship action and Docherty spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the clash, starting by reflecting on that chance he had against Dunfermline:

“It was a decent effort – probably not like me, a lot of folk will say! It was a great finish and I was already running away to celebrate but the ‘keeper pulls off a brilliant save out of nowhere.

“Other than that we didn’t really have too many clear chances which isn’t like us but you’re going to get games like that and at least we didn’t lose it. I think earlier in the season we might have lost that game so we take the point and now look forward.”

Thistle pushed for the winner right up to the final whistle but couldn’t find a breakthrough and Ross said that he knew during the game that it was going to be tough to get past a compact Pars side.

“I think if there was going to be a goal it was going to be something a bit out of the ordinary or a mistake and you saw that with their big chance where we make the mistake and Jamie makes a great save. In that sense it was quite a frustrating one for us and I imagine it was pretty rubbish to watch but they seemed to have that game plan of coming for the draw and we weren’t at our best so we can’t complain about only getting a point.

“We had a quite a few games last season where teams came here and just made it difficult for us and we were losing games where the opposition had one or two shots but we kept that clean sheet on Saturday which was pleasing but we’re going to get more games like that. Teams will have seen how many goals we’ve scored and will be looking for ways to counter that so we’ll need to be able to break teams down in a way we didn’t quite manage at the weekend.”

The Firhill side now head to Cappielow to take on Greenock Morton and Docherty says the team will be looking to take all three points against the Ton.

“We want to win each game and we want to be getting as many points as we can so we put that pressure on ourselves to go an perform in each match. We want to set high standards for ourselves so we know if we want to beat Morton, we’ll need to do more than we did against Dunfermline.”

In Thistle’s last away game they were comfortable winners against Hamilton, ending a run of three league games on the road without a win, and Ross is hopeful that the Jags can now kick on and become a more consistent away team off the back of that 6-1 victory against Accies.

“I think a lot of it comes down to being able to manage the game. Even in the match at Hamilton, they had a spell towards the end of the first half where we had to keep it tight and get into half-time before we had that blistering start to the second half which won us the game. In previous away games, we haven’t managed those spells and its cost us points so going forward we’re hoping we can do what we did against Accies and start picking up more points away from home.”

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We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.