McCall refuses to rest on his laurels
Thistle boss says previous trip matters little at Ton
IAN McCall reckons his Partick Thistle side are in for a tricky test at Cappielow tonight – despite the Jags recording a comfortable 3-0 win over Morton when the two sides last met at Firhill earlier this season.
Kevin Holt, Zak Rudden and Brian Graham were on target for the Maryhill club that day and with Morton having failed to score in six of their last seven outings in all competitions, the league fixture arrives at an opportune moment for McCall’s side.
However, the Thistle boss pointed out that the same could have been said ahead of the Jags’ goalless draw with Dunfermline at the weekend, having recorded a routine victory at East End Park back in August. And with fixtures against fellow promotion hopefuls Inverness and Kilmarnock looming, he sees little to separate any of the teams battling it out in the Championship.
“Well, it was a pretty comfortable win when we beat Dunfermline 3-0 but we didn’t beat them on Saturday,” he observed. “It’s just the nature of this league – I’m not sure it matters who you’re playing, it’s difficult to get three points.
“You saw on Saturday there were four draws out of five so to get three points would be massive for us. That’s what we’re aiming for and we won’t change how we play.
“We’ve got positive momentum just now after winning two and drawing one of our last three games, and we’ve scored quite a lot of goals. Playing Inverness and Killie – I’m not sure if there’s that much difference to playing Morton or Dunfermline. It’s just the nature of the league.”
Morton’s struggles in front of goal of late could leave some Thistle supporters licking their lips at the prospect of facing Gus MacPherson’s side tonight in Greenock, but McCall takes an altogether different view.
He said: “That’s one way of looking at it – the other is that they’re probably due a few goals! We just concentrate on ourselves and try and do what we do well.”
McCall added that central defenders Steven Bell and Darren Brownlie remain absent through injury, while on-loan Hearts goalkeeper Harry Stone will return to full training on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Thistle have taken one step closer to becoming a fan-owned club after a timetable for the transfer of shares from Three Black Cats (3BC) to The Jags Foundation (TJF) was agreed.
The shares and land currently owned by 3BC, the company the late Euromillions winner Colin Weir used to purchase a majority stake in the club back in November 2019, will transfer over to the fans’ group in June 2022.
As part of the transition, there will be a period of “knowledge sharing” where a member of TJF will be appointed to the club board to gain an insight into the day-to-day running of the club. A further TJF director will be appointed to the club board once the share transfer is finalised – with both appointments subject to approval from the club board.
Gavin Taylor, chairman of TJF, said: “The key question all Jags fans have been asking TJF is, ‘When are the shares going to be transferred?’ Despite all the difficulties caused by the pandemic I am pleased that we now have a definitive answer. The timescale gives us an opportunity to work with the PTFC board in order to ensure a smooth handover.”