Graham has lots to cheer against Morton
Jags striker says he’ll never tire of haunting old club
WHILE some players opt not to celebrate if they score against an old team, Partick Thistle striker Brian Graham is not of that mindset.
In fact, the 34-year-old revealed that he relishes beating the team where he started his professional career, mainly because Morton fans have given him stick ever since he broke into their first team as a teenager.
Delighted to set the Jags on their way to an emphatic win on Saturday, he drew them level following Robbie Muirhead’s sensational long-range free-kick opener for the visitors.
Kevin Holt, who later missed a penalty, headed Partick into the lead before the interval. In the second half, Aaron Muirhead and substitutes Scott Tiffoney and Anton Dowds were all on the scoresheet as the Championship leaders cruised to a comfortable win.
Graham admitted he could hear the verbal abuse being spouted in his direction by the travelling support but was delighted to silence them in a thumping win. His only gripe was that the team didn’t score more.
‘It’s good in a way that the goals are shared round,’ he said. ‘A couple of times we need to just put the ball in the box, we don’t need to walk the ball in.
‘In the first half in particular, we were high up and the ball just has to come in, we don’t need to keep playing little triangles. Try and get it to the bye-line and cut it in.
‘Sometimes (we need) good old-fashioned wing play, touch and whip it in and let me go and attack the ball. That’s what happened with my goal and that’s what I love to do, score goals. Especially against Morton, because their fans give me dog’s abuse.
‘I came through there as a kid, that’s where I started. I scored a few goals for their first team before moving to Raith Rovers.
‘If you see all the years gone past, I absolutely love to celebrate scoring against everyone — but especially Morton.
‘I don’t know why their fans give me stick. I was just a young kid and I thought I should have got more support. If I made one mistake they were on my back and they were horrible in that Cowshed, so I was glad to get one over them.
‘When they were going for the league many moons ago with Partick Thistle, I kept scoring against them for Raith and dented their hopes of going up. They haven’t forgiven me for that.
‘It was brilliant to win 5-1. I could hear the abuse they were giving me, I’ve got two young kids sitting with family there and I just thought their fans were a disgrace.
‘They like to give it out but they don’t like to take it, so they can take a bit of that. Five-one and up the road.’
Thistle are a point clear of Queen’s Park at the summit and Graham reckons there is more to come from Ian McCall’s side.
‘I wouldn’t say it was our best performance but we scored the goals and that’s all that matters,’ he added. ‘This is the best squad since I’ve come to Thistle, you can see the strength in depth on the bench and our training levels have gone up. Long may it continue and we just need to keep going.’
Morton captain Grant Gillespie apologised to travelling fans after the Cappielow side crumbled defensively.
And he demanded a reaction when they face high-flying Queen’s Park tomorrow night.
‘I hold my hands up and apologise, it wasn’t good enough, from every single one of us,’ said Gillespie.
‘If you don’t defend your box and allow Partick Thistle to win pretty much every header, you’re going to concede like we did.
‘We needed to stand up and be counted and we didn’t do that. From that aspect, bitterly disappointing.
‘The fans pay hard-earned money to come and watch. It’s not acceptable.
‘They expect a lot more and as a team we expect a lot more. We have to dust ourselves down as we’ve got another hard game on Tuesday. There’s got to be a reaction otherwise it could be a long season. We have lost three in a row and we need to regroup.
‘We’ll look at where we went wrong, although it’s obvious as defending our box was key and we failed at that.
‘But we’ll go again on Tuesday, try to rectify our wrongs and show a lot more.’
PARTICK THISTLE (4-2-3-1): Mitchell 6; McMillan 8 (Hodson 80), Muirhead 7, Holt 7, Milne 6; Docherty 7, Bannigan 7 (Mullen 80); Lawless 7, McKinnon 5 (Turner 46), Smith 4 (Tiffoney 46); Graham 8 (Dowds 73). Subs not used: Sneddon, Weston, Akinola, Fitzpatrick. Booked: Milne, McMillan. MORTON (3-4-1-2): Schwake 4; Pignatiello 5 (Hynes 69), O’Connor 5, Strapp 4; Grimshaw 5, Blues 5, Gillespie 6 (McGregor 83), King 4; Crawford 5; Muirhead 5, Kabia 6 (McGrattan 83). Subs not used: Green. Booked: Gillespie, Kabia. Referee: Willie Collum. Attendance: 2,932.