Partick Thistle goalkeeper Ryan Scully has vowed to repay the faith shown in him by manager Alan Archibald, after fearing he had blown his chance to stake a claim for a regular first-team place.
Scully spent the early part of the season as understudy to Tomas Cerny, but with the Czech goalkeeper picking up an ankle injury against Hamilton, the 23-year-old understudy was pressed into action.
After waiting patiently for his opportunity though, his first start of the season against Hearts could hardly have gone worse, with his side conceding four goals and Scully being dismissed for tripping Osman Sow to give away the penalty for the last of those goals. An impressive display from his replacement Paul Gallacher in the game against Dundee had Scully wondering if he’d blown his big chance.
He was restored to the starting line-up for the match with Inverness though upon his return from suspension, and maintained his place despite Cerny returning to the Partick Thistle starting eleven for the romp over Kilmarnock at the weekend.
Now he is hoping to keep the gloves for the vital clash with Motherwell on Saturday.
He said: “It really gave me a boost when the gaffer showed confidence in me. That would help any player.
“With Tomas coming back this week as well it was a real show of faith in me from the manager, but to be fair I’ve not had too much to do in the last few games as well so that’s been nice!
“Being involved in wins has obviously helped my chances.
“It was disappointing to say the least when I was sent off against Hearts, I don’t think I left my house for the rest of that weekend.
“It was just one of those things, and the difference between the feeling after that and the feeling after the weekend there is night and day.
“You wait ages for a chance then that happens, and with Gal coming in and doing so well you think you might not get back in.
“The gaffer showed that faith in me though, so I’m really grateful for that and with the wins we’ve been getting too it’s really helped my confidence.
“It can be difficult when you’re out of the side. As a goalkeeper especially it’s hard, and you kind of get into the routine of being on the bench.
“It’s important though that you come in from the Monday right through to the Saturday and give it your best and not let your head go down, because that can affect the rest of the boys.
“It’s important to keep your head up and keep believing that your chance will come.
“At the start of this year it was a big step up going from League One to the Premiership, but now I’ve had a taste of it I obviously want to keep the position and get as many games under my belt as possible.
“Everything is going well just now, but the hard work starts again every Monday on the training pitch.”
Scully says that despite his delight with the performance of the side as a whole in the emphatic victory at Rugby Park, he was disappointed in the manner of the two goals that they did concede.
“It was a great performance from the lads on Saturday and you couldn’t really fault it, everything just clicked for us.
“But every time we lose a goal we’ll obviously look at it, no matter how good the result has been.
“It was two bad goals from our point of view and I was disappointed with that because it would have been nice to get the clean sheet.
“At the end of the day though the most important thing was to get the three points, and the boys were brilliant.”
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