Jags make their point:
Jags lead twice but Vics battle back to force draw
Alan Paterson insisted it was a point gained at Blantyre – despite watching his East Kilbride Thistle side blow the lead twice and have a penalty saved.
The Jags boss also hailed their battling defensive display as the depleted outfit made it three draws on the bounce in West Region One.
Craig Tocher and Paul Byrne saw their efforts cancelled out by Connor Boyle and Dylan Falconer as the hosts came from behind to earn a draw, although it might have been different had Thistle’s Chris Faulds netted from the penalty spot.
Thistle went into the match without five key players [Clark, Ramsay, Smith, White and Kevin McLean] and Paterson was delighted to come away with a point against a side who have gone 11 games unbeaten.
He said: “I was going down there fearing the worst, but the players rolled their sleeves up and got a result with their dogged and workmanlike attitude.
“Blantyre might feel it’s two points dropped, but it’s a point won for us. Defending is part of the game and we did that well.
“The good thing is we didn’t lose, but I can see a fighting attitude in them that we aren’t going to be beaten easily.
“We went ahead twice and missed a penalty, that’s the disappointing thing.
“But Blantyre is a notoriously difficult place to go and I would have taken a point before the game.
“They kept asking questions of us and we answered a lot of them.”
After drawing a blank in their final game of 2018 at home to Royal Albert, the Jags might have feared it wasn’t going to be their day again when Faulds had his penalty superbly saved by the Vics keeper inside nine minutes.
However, Thistle didn’t let their heads go down and they grabbed their first goal of the new year on the half hour mark.
Ally Morgan fed Tocher and he burst into the box, drawing the keeper out and keeping his cool to slot home the opener and hand Thistle a halftime lead.
Blantyre flew out of the traps in the second half and had their visitors under the cosh, which eventually paid dividends after an hour when Boyle’s header flew past Ross Meldrum in the Jags goal.
But Thistle regained the lead 10 minutes later when Byrne pounced on a defensive lapse.
They could only hold on to that lead for six minutes, though, as Falconer bagged the equaliser.
Paterson added: “I’ve given the players what for when they’ve not been good enough this season, so they deserve credit for this.
“Blantyre are a really good side. To go toe-to-toe with them, I’m delighted.
“We had to try a different shape with all the players we had missing and it took us about 10 minutes to get going, but Tocher and Morgan had a great game and ran Blantyre ragged in the first half.
“We knew they’d have a go in the second half and they threw everything at us, but we did really well.”
Thistle take a break from league action this weekend when they travel to Newmains United in round two of the West of Scotland Cup.
Kick-off at Victoria Park is at the earlier time of 1.30pm.