 Media report |
Partick Thistle got their Premier Sports Cup Group E campaign off to a flying start, with a 6-0 demolition of Brechin City on Saturday at Firhill Stadium. The Maryhill men returned to competitive action a mere 47 days after play-off final defeat to St. Mirren, with Jags fans hoping this year’s squad could repeat the heroics of 1971, the club’s only League Cup triumph. Lewis Budinauckas started in goals, with Lee Ashcroft and Dan O’Reilly at centre half as well as Paddy Reading and Cammy Logan on the defensive flanks. Oisin Smyth made his first competitive start as a permanent Thistle player, lining up alongside Ts’oanelo Lets’osa and Robbie Crawford in the centre of midfield. Aidan Fitzpatrick and Gary Mackay-Steven marshalled the wings whilst Tony Watt was trusted as the lone man up front. New signings Seb Drozd and Euan Henderson started the game on the bench, with a few of their fellow new recruits notable by their absence. New midfielder Ben Dempsey was carrying a knock and missed out while the returning Ethan Ingram and Ben McPherson were also absent. The former was still building up his stamina after a late return to pre-season, while Ben McPherson remained sidelined by injury, as was the case for Ricco Diack.
It was all Jags from the opening whistle, and Mark Wilson’s men were ahead within seven minutes. A quickly taken free kick got Reading moving down the left-hand side allowing him to deliver a testing cross into the six-yard box. Gary Mackay-Steven got in front of his man and stretched out a leg to divert the ball past Kyle Gourlay for his first goal in red and yellow. Brechin were dealt an early blow, when Spencer Moreland went down with an injury in the Thistle box. The Hedgemen were forced into an early substitution on 13 minutes as Kyle Bell replaced the injured midfielder. The home side doubled their lead on 20 minutes when Brad McKay clipped Tony Watt in the box, and referee Steven McLean pointed to the spot. Oisin Smyth stepped up to take the spot kick, smashing it into the bottom left corner, with the keeper powerless to stop the ball despite going the right way. The Jags were now in the mood, swiftly making it 3-0. A corner was lifted over to the far post by Aidan Fitzpatrick where Mackay-Steven was waiting to volley home on 27 minutes. Two minutes before half-time, Robbie Crawford picked out Watt in the Brechin area. He took aim on the spin but saw his effort go a shade too high as Thistle were forced to settle for a three-goal advantage heading down the tunnel.
The second half started with less urgency than the first, with little of note happening in the opening ten minutes. Robbie Crawford howled for a potential penalty after a Brechin defender looked to block his shot from the area with his arm, but the referee waved play on. Lets’osa had Gourlay beaten with a good effort soon after, but a deflection saw the ball roll narrowly wide. Then, a brief spell of Brechin aggression saw the Jags forced to defend against a flurry of corners in short succession. The Angus side were lucky not to be reduced to ten men following a reckless lunge from Brad McKay, but it wasn’t long before Thistle made it 4-0. Ex-Celtic wideman Mackay-Steven continued his terrific performance, threading a superb ball through for Logan, who let fly at goal. Gourlay was wise to it, keeping it out, only for the rebound to come to Fitzpatrick who nodded home for the fourth of the day. Wilson turned to his bench on the hour mark as Cale Loughrey and Alex Samuel entered, while Euan Henderson and Seb Drozd made their maiden appearances for Thistle, with Ashcroft, Mackay-Steven, Fitzpatrick and Watt making way. Henderson made an immediate impression on the left wing, stinging the palms of Gourlay with a speculative effort that the Brechin keeper pushed over the bar. His fellow debutant Drozd would get on the scoresheet on 65 minutes. Drozd forged a path down the right-hand side, taking advantage of a lax Brechin backline to curl a classy finish into the far corner for 5-0. Two minutes after, Brechin were hit for six, with Henderson getting off the mark. The ball was threaded through to Dan O’Reilly who had made an excellent run into the box and when the Irishman was presented with an awkward chance to shoot he smartly squared it to Thistle’s number 10 who calmly guided it on target and into the net despite a defender’s best efforts on the line.
Youth prospect Matthew Falconer got minutes in the legs for the final twenty as the Jags continued to go on the hunt for further goals. Gourlay was kept busy in the Brechin goal, keeping out efforts from Henderson, Smyth and Samuel as the clock ticked down, before the whistle blew to confirm Thistle’s first three points of the group stage campaign. The Jags finish the opening weekend top of the group, with a healthy goal difference advantage, as Stenhousemuir defeated Forfar 2-0 in the other game in the group today. Mark Wilson’s side are back in action on Tuesday, travelling to Station Park to face Forfar with a 7:45pm kick off, before rounding out the group stage with fixtures against Livingston and Stenhousemuir.
 Reaction |
Thistle manager Mark Wilson spoke to the press, transcribed via
'The Thistle' 
:
If you approach it professionally, in the right frame of mind, and concentrate on yourselves and what you want to get out of it, then it should look like that - without being disrespectful to Brechin. But you can never second guess these games. If you start sluggish and people think, ‘I’ll just get through this, I don’t want to get injured’, then they can be really tough and long afternoons. But I was super pleased that the boys approached it in the right frame of mind. You can see that they moved about quickly, plenty of forward running, plenty of forward thinking. The two wide guys in the first half [Aidan Fitzpatrick and Gary Mackay-Steven] were outstanding and there was a lot of good stuff, so I’m pretty pleased overall. As soon as Gary came to training, you could see his quality. He’s probably a level above most – and I include Premiership wingers in that. He’s just got game intelligence and real quality, and he understands and identifies when he needs to look forward. He’s got great technical ability and you could see wee passes he was playing today. So, just getting him back, getting him fit – he’s obviously in the twilight of his career now – so we’re just managing him, and he’ll have to manage himself. But if you get him fully fit like he is just now, wow, what a player he is.
Lee Ashcroft
Seb Drozd
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