Gordon tonic can kick-start Thistle

TWO-GOAL Shea Gordon insists his heroics can act as a springboard for Partick Thistle to charge up the Championship table after he climbed from the bench to shoot down Morton.

The attacking midfielder is also hoping that, having virtually singlehandedly provided the Jags’ first victory at Firhill since April, he can become a regular for Ian McCall rather than be seen as a highly-effective impact substitute.

Gordon scored within 15 seconds of joining the game, then hit the winner after Jack Baird had levelled — all of this while Thistle were down to ten men after Stuart Bannigan was sent off for the second time this season.

The only downside for Partick is that momentum will not be with them in their bid to rise off the bottom of the table, as they travel to Stenhousemuir in the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Cup quarter-finals next weekend.

But Gordon, who will join teammate Cammy Palmer in the Northern Ireland Under-21s squad for a friendly with Hungary on Thursday and a Euro 2020 qualifier against Romania next week, was just delighted with a result which left Thistle two points behind David Hopkin’s Morton.

‘It’s nice when you can come off the bench and make an impact. I did it a couple of weeks ago, too, at Dundee,’ said the 21-year-old. ‘But I don’t want to become known as someone who comes off the bench. I want to be starting games and, hopefully, this will help me.

‘It was more than three points for us. We had been thinking about the game all week. We were desperate to get out there and get the place rocking with the fans behind us after the big disappointment at Ayr the previous week.

‘We knew how important it was and, hopefully, it can give us momentum before Christmas.

‘I feel like it’s a turning point in our season. It can get our season going after a tough start.

‘Hopefully we’ll look back on this as the game that kick-started us.

‘We’ve produced some good results on the road but we’ve had some tough results, too. So, to finally win at home is massive for us. I think if we play as we did on Saturday, then we can start moving up the table.’

While it was a relief for Partick to snap out of their losing streak, the away-day blues continue for Morton, who have now lost all seven of their league matches on their travels this term.

Defender Jack Baird claims there is no panic and believes the quality of the Morton squad will ensure an improvement.

‘These things get brought up all the time,’ he said. ‘I had the same before at a previous club, although it was the opposite — we couldn’t win at home. The less you think about it, the less of a problem it becomes.

‘It would be different if we weren’t a good team. Some of the best players I have ever played with are in this team. So no one is stressing out about it.

‘We do need to take a look at ourselves and then take it step by step. We are strong at home so we are not panicking.’