Managers Comments Post Thistle

Stephen Kenny and Dick Campbell

Stephen Kenny:-

"It was a good win for us today; I am delighted with the win and the response of the players.  It was a good performance, we created a lot of chances.

"We spoke in the dressing room afterwards, while we were complimentary to the players there were no real high fives - we are not in the business of celebrating getting into the semi finals. There is certainly no point in that.  While it is unusual that the semi finals at Hampden really you are looking to get to a final, aren't you. We will see who the draw brings and take it from there.

"We have achieved that (a greater cutting edge to our game) over the last four or five weeks.  If you look at our last five games at East End we have beaten Rangers, Hearts and Partick, drawn with Kilmarnock 1-1 in a game we should probably have won and lost 1-0 narrowly to Rangers in one of Walter Smith's early games in charge.

"Since Hammill (below) and O'Brien (above) have come in it has given us absolutely a new dimension without a shadow of a doubt.  We haven't been taking our chances and the finishing has been sub standard. Maybe that's an understatement, the finishing hasn't been up to scratch at all. Thankfully today the goals went in.

"Partick had a spell in the second half for about ten or fifteen minutes where they changed the system with an extra player in midfield, went 4-3-3.  But once we balanced that up when Jamie McCunnie came on we were comfortable then.  We had a few chances to go two nil up earlier in the second half but we didn't take them and nearly paid the price. In the end Stephen (Simmons) got the second goal and it was a great goal."

Simmy's celebration earned him a yellow card, his second in the competition and duly rules him out of the semi final.  Stephen Kenny commented on the rule:-

"Rules are very strict but is pretending to smoke a cigarette antagonising people? We only have non smokers at this club! It is a balance between tobacco advertising and sport.  There is no need for him, technically it could be a booking but I don't know where it says if you simulate cigarette smoking that it is a booking. 

"The fact is we do not score many goals so you can understand when a fellow scores two he wants to celebrate and enjoy the moment.  Relive the Hamlet ad, or whatever you know. His booking against Rangers was for celebrating the goal as well. We will have to stop him making those forward runs into the box.

"The players did very well today, they worked hard and it was a game we could have lost. Partick had nothing to lose coming here and it is one that we could have got turned over in.  We are pleased that we managed to get a victory because when you lose a few matches as we have in the league it can erode your confidence, but the fact that we went and got another win gives credibility to the players for some of the play in recent weeks.

"We have played a lot of good football in recent weeks but I can't explain why the goals are going in the Cup but not the league. Six against three good sides like Rangers, Hearts and Partick; averaged two in these games.  For whatever reasons we created more chances.  We probably have created more chances in some of the other games that we have not capitalised on. It is difficult to explain.

"A lot of neutral observers will be of the opinion that we are relegated and preparing for next season and so forth but that is not the opinion here.  The fact that players are signing new contracts and the Board are committed to players signing new contracts; players who could easily get clubs in the Premier Division - are happy to do that because they still believe that we are moving forward, we want to get better as a club and progress."

Asked about Owen Morrison who was expected to go to China to play there, Stephen Kenny

"China has a certain regime where you have to conform and I wouldn't say Owen is a non conformist but........ He is an individual and it is a comminist state.  I got him a copy of Das Kapital and he thought it was a book about capital cities in Europe!

"He is very good and he deserves credit for his performance.  I know Owen well because he trained with me for eight or ten weeks when I was at Derry.  He is a Derry lad and when he is on his game he is a very good player. He can play an important part for us now. He has got himself into better state and the Chinese move would have been financially very good for him. He explored it for a week."

Partick Thistle Manager, Dick Campbell said:-

"Your best laid plans and preparation were out the window after three minutes.  It was the worst case scenario to come here against Dunfermline, who are not doing particularly in the league but doing reasonably well in the Cup.  Your team plans to frustrate them but we lost a goal, a bad goal that I have seen on the television.

"I told them before we came here the two young boys on the wing will cause anybody problems and they did cause problems all day. We didn't stop the crosses in to the big boy Simmons, Boyd was twice flat on his feet - the big boy took it well, it was worthy of anything. For ten minutes after that we were a bit dodgy but we weathered it to come back at them.

"We started the second half well but never really created a chance. It was a magnificent cross for the second goal.  On any other day we might have got a bit of the rub of the green.

"Dunfermline deserved to win the game because of the quality goals they scored. It was a boost to me when Stephen Crawford wasn't playing but obviously Stephen (Kenny) knows his own team and he has been very forward thinking. He has played the young boys and it caused us a problem."

Dick was asked if the delay to the kick off to let Dunfermline fans into the ground had been off putting:-

"I wish they had delayed it another three minutes" he joked. "It didn't affect us" he claimed, as he praised the 2297 strong travelling support.