Friday 9th April, 2021 at 3:24pm
There are few players enjoying the return to football as much as Ciaran McKenna. After picking up a long-term injury last October, the defender was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as he made his comeback in a 0-0 draw at the Falkirk Stadium but, as luck would have it for the number 16, that turned out to be the final game for Thistle before the season was put on hold. Now, having featured in five of the Jags’ six matches since the restart, McKenna is looking for a positive end to the season. Ciaran spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of this weekend’s game against Peterhead on the road:
“The good thing about the schedule at the moment is that we’ve always got another game so although we’ve been a bit disappointed with a couple of the recent results, we’re looking forward to this one.
“We feel like we could have won at Tannadice and then should have played better against East Fife over the 90 minutes but we don’t have time to let that stew, we have to refocus and look towards another big game where we’ll be looking to get the three points and start moving in the right direction.”
McKenna expanded on his thoughts on Tuesday night’s draw against East Fife, a game that he reckons showed both sides of Thistle at the moment.
“It was a very different game either side of half-time. Obviously, going two down so early on wasn’t good enough and gave us a real tough job but we came out for the second half and battered them. We felt like in that second half alone we had enough chances to score not just two or three but even four or five really.
“We were pretty happy with the way we created chances in that second half and East Fife are the team with the best home league record in the league so it did show good character to come back and get a draw although we realise we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position in the first place.”
Peterhead accounted for one of Thistle’s three defeats so far this season when they edged out the Jags by a goal to nil at Firhill in December and Ciaran says the team are completely focused on avoiding a similar slip-up this time.
“That game shows us exactly what will happen if we’re not at our best, especially going away from home this time. No one is under any illusions about this being an easy game and we’re all ready to fight for the points in what will be a tough game.”
Following Saturday’s game, Thistle return to Maryhill for two games in two days and McKenna knows this will be a huge week for the Jags’ season.
“These next three games are absolutely massive. It’s going to be an interesting week with not much time to train in between matches but we have a big squad so we should be ready for it. I think we just need to take it one game at a time and hopefully we can come out the other end with maximum points.”
Ciaran has had a mixture of starts and substitute appearance which he realises is for his good as a player coming off a lengthy injury absence.
“We had quite a few boys out with long-term problems at the start of the season and I was one of those players so I realise we have to be careful. I think as a footballer you always want to play as much as possible but the manager and physio team have to make sure not overwork anyone in the squad but particularly people like me who spent months out earlier in the season and missed a lot of games.
“For me personally, after we’ve had two lockdowns and an injury that meant I only played one game in nearly six months I’m delighted to be back and I’m sure that goes for nearly everyone in the lower leagues right now.”
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JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our fixture against Peterhead – click here to tune in.
The home side are offering a PPV option, priced at £10, for Jags fans who wish to watch a livestream of the game – click here for more info.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of our trip to face Peterhead on JagZone.
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