Managers Post Partick Thistle

23/10/21: link to audio of both managers’ post match interviews

Dunfermline Athletic manager Peter Grant Felt that it had been a tough match in difficult windswept conditions or a pitch with longer grass than his side would have preferred:-

“Obviously Partick play on it every week and Queens Park play here so I understand the reasons why. It makes it difficult when the boys had a couple of half chances. It was a tough game, Thistle had scored ten goals in their last two Championship games and have been playing really well.

“In the last few weeks the boys have shown the spirit and I think deserved more out of both games to be perfectly honest with you. If they keep showing that commitment and desire, then you hope that little bit of luck changes for them to get that victory that they are so desperately wanting.

“We are here to try and win, I will never change that and we are very disappointed. It was the same last week against a very strong Kilmarnock side, the boys were despondent and quiet in the dressing room and it is the exact same over there because they felt that they had chances to win the game.

“They felt that they had chances to win the game but you have to remember that you have come away to a tough place against a team that was been on fire. I thought that we defended well as a group, we attacked well with a purpose and especially in the first half there were great opportunities where we just didn’t take care. If we had taken care the opportunities were there for us.

“The other pleasing thing for us was that Iain Wilson was able to comeback with a few minutes on the pitch and I thought that he was excellent when he came on.”

On another day Craig Wighton might have taken that chance?

“Craig is more than capable of that. I have no complaint and I have said that about every game that we have played. The strikers have had chances but I never leave strikers out if they have missed chances. I leave them out when they are not getting in the box.

“I think if you are telling them to get in the box to get chances and they get in there and the keeper makes a good save or they have a bad miss, then they will never go back in again. I keep hearing managers say if you don’t get in the box you will never score. Why take them off then or why leave them out of the team?

‘I think I have been fair with the strikers, every one of them gives us something different. As I have said many many times it is the group that is going to win us games of football and I think that has been proven again today.

“Now I am getting a group that is for for the first time. That makes a difference when you have a choice to make. It makes it a wee bit harder for me in selection, even for the guys on the bench. They can all be match winners for us with the likes of Kai Kennedy and Nikolay Todorov. They came on today and they all came on and affected the game one way or another.”

Is there a better way in ending the winless streak that with a win in the Fife derby on Tuesday night?

“Absolutely, it is the next game. After today you go into the next game wanting to win and what a fantastic game it would be to try and break that duck of victories. It would be fantastic if we could do that. Raith will be thinking the exact same thing, how we have not won any games. I understand how football works, the next important game is always the next one.

“It is a derby match, it is fantastic for the supporters and means so much to the supporters. That is who we are representing every week. I keep saying that. We are not worried about the names on the back, we are worried about the badge on the front.

“We have got to give them that victory. I know what it is like. I have been fortunate to have been involved in derbies everywhere and I know what it is like. I know how much it means to them. It doesn’t matter if it is one man and his dog that goes to it, they are all desperate to beat each other to have that bit of kudos going into work the next day.

“I am hoping that we can put in a performance and get a victory. It would be fantastic if we could do that on Tuesday.”

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