Manager Post Partick Thistle

Link to audio of Stevie Crawford’s post match comments and those of Gerry Britton

With the ‘monkey’ off the back Stevie Crawford told the media that the players and management looked forward to enjoying their Saturday night.

“I thought the team were together. We made a couple of personnel changes and to a man today I thought that they were excellent. The attitude of the boys throughout was different class and it was a strange one coming here today because at Partick Gary (Caldwell) lost his job through the week, which is never nice, and you are not sure what sort of reaction you are going to get.

”Credit to the boys, they were very professional, crested chances, scored goals and managed to get a clean sheet today as well.

”Nissy was unfortunate with a header, he hit the bar. In training this week we had worked on crossed balls because we hadn`t been putting enough in. The third goal was pleasing in a way because we put in a good delivery, Lewis McCann was unfortunate, it breaks out to Kyle Turner and he hit the target. We got a third goal from it so it was very pleasing.”

How big a three points will this be for you?

”The Championship is that tight, it allows us to kickstart our season and it is not getting carried away. There has been nothing in the games that we have lost and that is not to say that we accept that but this us a confidence booster for the boys.

”I do believe that there is genuine quality in there, the remit us to be competitive in this league with a younger squad that has the potential to get better and to get better you have to win games. I am delighted that we managed to do that today.

”When you find yourself at the bottom of the table it is not where we want to be as a club. To climb up the league three places with a victory now gives us that nice feeling to try and build on that.

”Ryan Dow is one of the experienced ones that we brought in. He would be the first to say that it was a collective effort as well but credit to Ryan in the period that he has been out he had tried to get himself back, even for last week but he was a little bit short. Sometimes you get your rewards in football through the hard work that people don`t see and Ryan has definitely his neck on the line. It is pleasing for him to come away with scoring a goal and a 3-0 victory.”

The first shut out in the league since March was achieved with a great defensive performance from Dunfermline. Stevie commented:-

”After last week’s the game against Inverness to lose a goal with three minutes to go, I thought that it was a very solid performance. I said at the time that we put crosses into the box but we just never got on the end of them.

”We asked more questions today, we had slightly better delivery and people getting in the box to get on them. It gives us something to build on.

”We will not get carried away because it is a league that can kick you but we very much look forward to the games that are coming up now.”

You obviously coped very well with the threat of Kenny Miller?

“Kenny made his debut at Hibs all those years ago and I played alongside him. Am I right in saying that he has half a dozen goals already this season so you always have to be wary of his movement. He is clever, he is intelligent and leads the line well.”

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