Partick Thistle began their new season as they mean to go on, recording a comfortable win in their first competitive game of the new season.
Thistle ended the 2017/18 season on huge low after being relegated from the Premiership and yesterday saw the Glasgow side’s first outing of this new season, where they travelled to Stenhousemuir for their first tie of the Betfred Cup group stages.
If there were any worries about early-season rustiness amongst the few hundred travelling fans, they were quickly allayed, with Thistle securing a 2-0 win in fairly impressive style.
Within the first two minutes, loan signing Shea Gordon had the ball in the back of the net after producing a good finish from a ball squared to him by Blair Spittal.
And just four minutes later, Gordon scored his second to double the visitors lead after getting on the end of a long ball from Sean McGinty and chipping the Stenhousemuir keeper, Graeme Smith, to give his team a comfortable cushion.
Thistle manager Alan Archibald declared himself happy with his team’s performance on a warm day at Ochilview, although he admitted to being a touch disappointed that his team couldn’t add to their early lead despite creating a number of further scoring opportunities.
“It was good to get off to a winning start – it’s never easy, especially not with the temperatures out there which made it hard for the players,” he said of the match.
“We got off to a fantastic start and we should have probably built on it but we didn’t quite take our chances.
“We started the game well and were on the front foot but we probably stopped playing a little bit. At 2-0, the game is never done and after that, Stenhousemuir had a spell of about 15 minutes. But in the second half, we were in control.”
Archibald was hugely complimentary of Gordon, whose loan deal from Motherwell is for the entire season, and is optimistic ha can make a real mark on the team, which, the Thistle manager insists, have shelved the disappointment of last season’s relegation and are only looking ahead.
“I hope he’ll be a big player for us this season,” he said of Gordon.
“It’s a fantastic start for him. He’s done very well in pre-season, I’m delighted with him. He gives us great energy and something different that we’ve not had for a while.
“Last season is done with, we’ve moved on from it. It was dealt with after the first week and we’re now building for this season.”
Stenhousemuir manager Brown Ferguson was relatively happy with his team’s performance and insists despite the defeat, there were plenty of positives.
“The main thing is that even though we were 2-0 down after six minutes, they kept at it. It was a pretty competitive game although the two goals are avoidable. But the players are still getting to now each other and I was really pleased with their endeavour.
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