Monday 1st April, 2019 at 11:00am
Every Thistle player came off the pitch at full time on Saturday at Cappielow Park feeling great but there would have been one man with a smile that was slightly wider than anyone else’s; Shea Gordon. The Northern Irishman made his return to first team football in the victory over Morton after around seven months out through injury, playing the full 90 minutes in the Thistle engine room. Some game time with the Reserves represented all the preparation Shea could make ahead of his reintroduction to senior football but he stepped back in seamlessly, showing his calmness and presence of mind as the Maryhill men sauntered to a convincing triumph over the Ton. Gordon spoke to ptfc.co.uk following the final whistle, beginning by reflecting on a pleasing away performance:
“It’s a great win for everyone. Coming away to Greenock, it’s a tough place to come and to leave with a comfortable win is terrific. The boys really dug in and to be honest I think we could have won by more but three goals and a clean sheet; we’re very happy with that.”
With the victory, Morton are now only two points ahead of the Jags and Shea is delighted that Thistle have taken this opportunity to put some serious pressure on the teams above them.
“It’s something that we’d spoken about in the lead up to the game. We know that we can only affect our results but that means when you play the teams around you, it becomes even more important because you can then dictate their result as well and that’s what we’ve done.
“It’s a statement too. Everyone else will be looking at us now thinking we don’t want to be on the end of a result like that so we need to use the confidence we have now to go and produce similar scores more regularly.”
On a personal note, after such a long time out, during which he’s had multiple setbacks, Shea was just happy to be playing first team football again.
“It was great to be back out there. It’s been a very long journey but that just makes it even more worthwhile when you do get playing again. The thought of playing is what keeps you going sometimes and to make my return in such a great win for the team; it couldn’t have been much better.
“The minutes I got with the Reserves definitely helped fitness wise because the Championship has a different intensity and it helped make the reintroduction to senior football slightly smoother.”
Reflecting on the first half, the midfielder noted the importance of the game’s opening goal as the away side really took control of the game after Kris Doolan’s 16th minute strike.
“The opener was key because they had actually started fairly brightly and had been causing us a few problems but once Dools got his goal, we really settled into things and started to use the ball a bit better. From there, we pushed on and didn’t look back.”
He finished by letting us know what his targets are for the rest of the season having now finally made his comeback.
“I think personally it’s about playing as many minutes as possible, playing games for 90 minutes but also to help the team as much as I can. This was a great win but we’re still in a tough position and there’s still a lot of work to be done. Hopefully, today I’ve shown the gaffer that I’m more than ready to do my bit.”
Further reaction from Gary Caldwell, Kris Doolan and Steven Saunders to the weekend’s 3-0 win over Greenock Morton is available to watch for JagZone subscribers – log in to see them now.
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