Friday 6th August, 2021 at 2:47pm
Lewis Mayo made a winning start to his second spell as a Partick Thistle player on Saturday as he played 90 minutes in the Jags’ 3-2 win over Queen of the South at Firhill in their cinch Championship opener and he’s now looking to make it two from two as the team travel to take on his former side Dunfermline Athletic this weekend. The centre-half spent last season on loan at East End Park but will now be looking to get one over on the Pars with Thistle seeking to build on last week’s opening day win. Mayo spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the trip to Fife:
“We’re feeling good going into this one. We take confidence from last week’s win albeit we will still want to improve on the performance because there were little bits that we can do a lot better but at the end of the day it’s the result that matters and hopefully we can get another win this week.”
Saturday’s win represented the defender’s second debut as a Jag and Lewis says he’s been settling in well since officially re-joining the club last week.
“I’ve settled really quickly and it helps that I know a few of the boys from the last time I was here and some of the other guys from playing with or against at other times too. It’s a really good group we’ve got here and I’m looking forward to being part of it as the season goes on.”
Reflecting further on the game against the Doonhamers, Lewis said that Thistle had to be pleased with the way they fought to win the game despite not necessarily being at their best.
“The positives we did take from that game were the grit we showed to bounce back twice after conceding and then also to see the game out right at the end without coming under too much serious pressure. We showed a lot of composure at the end of the game to just slow everything down and keep the ball in their half.
“It’s encouraging for us that we won that game despite the fact we felt we weren’t playing to our full potential and it’s exciting to think that there should be a lot more to come from us. Going forward we want to put in much stronger performances and hopefully things won’t be as tight as they were at the weekend.”
This weekend’s opponents Dunfermline are averaging three goals a game in competitive action so far this season and Mayo says he’s expecting a tough game at East End Park.
“I was there on loan last season so I know quite a few of the boys in the team and there’s a lot of quality there. I’ve got no doubts that this is going to be a really tough test for us and we’ll need to be at our best if we’re going to get the result that we want.”
Despite having played a full season as a Pars player, this will be the first opportunity Lewis has had to play in front of their supporters and with no Jags fans allowed in he reckons it’ll make for a unique atmosphere.
“It’ll be odd to have fans in without any of them being ours. I think we’re just delighted to have any fans back in though to be fair because it gives the match that edge that was missing at times last year. It will actually be strange to play in front of the Dunfermline fans because I was playing in empty stadiums for the whole of last season while I was on loan there.”
Following the game in Fife there will be a two week break before the Jags are back in action and the number four thinks that time will serve him well as he continues to build relationships with his new teammates.
“That extra time training without a game will be useful for us as a group because I know that even before I came in it had been a bit stop-start for some boys in pre-season and for me the more time I get working with my teammates in training the better. It also gives the management team more time to work on different things and look at how they want the team to play but, for now, everyone’s fully focused on Saturday’s game and getting a positive result to take us into the break.”
Exclusive preview interviews with Thistle assistant manager Neil Scally and Ciaran McKenna will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
The home side are providing a livestream of the game which is priced at £12 – click here for more info.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
Article Copyright © 2021. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
