The Thistle Archive

Media report

12-Dec-2020, forfarathletic.co.uk

This was a match that started badly for Forfar - and didn’t really get much better in the the 83 minutes that followed the enforced substitution of experienced centre-back, Steven Anderson. Only seven minutes into his return from an injury sustained in a pre-season friendly at Arbroath, Anderson was forced to leave the Station Park pitch with what turned out be an achilles problem. In a season already marked by a string of injuries to defenders, this was just one more blow for manager Stuart Malcolm’s side to absorb.

In the immediate aftermath of Shea Gordon’s 52nd minute counter, two Forfar players - goalkeeper Marc McCallum and Beejay Coll - as well as Malcolm himself were “awarded” yellow cards. Such was the level of indignation shown by the home side at referee Gavin Ross’ decision to wave play on. “It was a free-kick in the middle of the park in the build-up to the first goal” repeated Malcolm, who was shown a red card at full-time after making remarks the referee clearly viewed as insulting. “And the second goal looked off-side, too. The players are devastated. Marc has had to make a few comfortable saves. But nothing we wouldn’t expect him to make. In that respect, we were never under the cosh, or looking like they were going to tear us open. I’m not blaming the referee for the loss. But some of the decisions didn’t help.”

Still, no matter how legitimate Malcolm’s protests were, the result in the record book is unlikely to be changed. So better to look forward than back. And in that respect Malcolm remains optimistic. “We are so close to being a team that will pick up points,” he insisted. “We do everything well, apart from that last wee bit - the cutting edge. The points we have right now - as opposed to what we should have - does not reflect our performances.”

Reaction

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall (speaking to Jagzone):

We controlled most of that game and goals have been hard to come by for us recently but we got two good ones today. I think again we could have had more but we created much more against Dumbarton last week and scored none so I’m really pleased to get those two goals and the three points. We wanted to see more bodies in the box and today we had four or five guys trying to get in there and score a goal. We’re very happy with the result and that’s now five clean sheets in a row which is a great achievement. We’re now up to second too and we’re hoping that we’ll only get stronger when the injured boys start returning. It wasn’t an easy game at all and I’m proud of the way the boys stuck with it and got that win. We’ve still got seven or eight guys out at the moment but we’re hoping to have a couple back in training next week at least and hopefully we’ll be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as injuries go.

Forfar manager Stuart Malcolm, spoke to his club's website:

It was an unbelievable effort from the guys. They gave me everything I asked for. We battled. We fought. I’m bitterly disappointed for the players. I can’t fault their effort or their work-rate. Maybe we could be better in the final third. We could make better decisions. But I got everything I asked for in terms of competing. I thought we matched Thistle all game. We went toe-to-toe with them. We asked the boys to be really aggressive and they were. But once we don’t get the free-kick in the build-up to the opening goal we still have to defend the cross ball. We lost a runner from midfield into the box - Shea Gordon - one we could have matched. So we can still defend better. But the sucker-punch was not getting the free-kick in the middle of the park in the build-up to the first goal.

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