Paton prepares to take on former side Partick

Wednesday 1st February

Former Partick Thistle midfielder Paul Paton is hoping Saints can take a lot of confidence from Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Hamilton into Firhill this evening, the club’s first league victory since the 1-0 win at Kilmarnock on the 23rd December.

“I would say we played poorly for spells of the first half but obviously all that matters is we got the three points.

“Getting in at half time we just felt as if we could play a lot better. I know Hamilton had the better of the first half chances but we knew if we got the first goal then we could go on to get the three points.

“We believed that there would only be one winner if we went ahead and that’s what happened. You could see we were more confident once we went one up.”

Graham Cummins (2) and Murray Davidson scored the goals to win it but Paton was also single out for post match praise by manager Tommy Wright for his dominant performance in central midfield.

“I felt I was ok. I was just doing my job for the team and obviously the way I play is never going to grab any headlines! As long as I’m working hard I’ll be happy.”

A win over Partick tonight would put Saints 11 points clear of the hosts, who are currently in sixth place in the table. But Paton knows his former side will be no pushovers.

“From playing with them and against the players there I know they’re a good side with a lot of quality players. They are good going forward with a lot of strengths but so do we so we should be confident about going there.

“Last time I was there the crowd were calling me a few names! But I take it all as banter. It just comes with the territory of being a footballer and coming up against an old team.

“But we’re in a good position now and at the start of the season if you’d offered us the kind of points we’re on now and to be level with Hearts at this stage of the season we would have taken it.

“But we do feel we can still kick on from this position and finish as high in the table as possible. A win over Partick would go a long way towards that.”

Tonight’s match also acts as prelude to the Scottish Cup last 16 tie between the two sides, which takes place at McDiarmid Park a week on Saturday.

“It’s a winnable draw. I would have taken anyone at home to be honest as I feel like we could win any game here. We’ll go into both the game this week against Partick and the Scottish Cup match looking to win them.”