THERE may be over 9000 miles between Australian midfielder Ryan Edwards’s hometown and Firhill, but thanks to his footballing family, the Partick Thistle player has always had an eye on Scottish football.
His father, Alistair, had a spell with Rangers in the 1980s, although he never made a first-team appearance.
Thistle’s Edwards is revelling in the fact that he is the first member of the family to make a real impact on the league, and he impressed in his latest start against Aberdeen last weekend.
He feels at home here, not only because of his Scottish roots, but also due to the warm family atmosphere around his club. He is hoping to repay that welcome by performing well regularly in Thistle’s midfield, continuing today against Hearts at Firhill.
“I knew a lot about Scotland before I came here obviously because dad played here,” Edwards said.
“I was with Reading for four years so I kept an eye on Scottish football. You know about teams like Rangers, Celtic, Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen – even back in Australia.
“I’m very comfortable here and I have family here and I’m settled here. Thistle is such a good place to be and they made me feel at home right away. My grandparents came from Glasgow and Fort William and they live in Perth [in Australia] now, but I have cousins here.
“My dad was in the Under-18s at Rangers before playing for Millwall and Brighton and he is the sporting director at a Super League club in South Asia. My brother played in England, Australia and Malaysia as well so we are a football family.
“My dad messaged me after I made my debut last year and said I have done more in Scottish football then he ever did, because he never played for Rangers. It’s great to follow in his footsteps.”
Edwards is coming up on his first anniversary as a Thistle player having signed for the club last September, but he has yet to really make a starting slot his own.
After an energetic display against Aberdeen, and with Sean Welsh missing from today’s match after being sent off at Pittodrie, he believes that he can be the one to take on the visitors’ formidable midfield.
That will be crucial if the home side are to get a positive result, with their record against the bigger sides in the league being poor – particularly against Hearts who they have failed to score against since 2014.
Edwards said: “It was obviously a disappointing result [against Aberdeen], we played well and had some chances that we should have taken. That’s what the good teams do to you, they punish you and we’re looking to rectify that on Saturday.
“That’s one thing we spoke about from the cup game at Dundee United, when a goal goes in we can’t throw in the towel and think it’s over.
“The first goal is really important in the Scottish Premiership and as soon as it happened at Aberdeen everyone stuck together and even though we went down to ten men we still felt we could sneak it but it just went the wrong side of the post towards the end.
“Last season against the big teams we were unfortunate and again we managed to be in the wrong side of a result.
“But there are positives going forward to face the other big teams and we’re trying to pick up points as best we can against the big teams.”
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