I had a rare feeling of optimism before the start of the season today in the Ramsden Cup against Stenhousemuir. It’s not so much that Thistle have strengthened our team but that other teams in our league seem to have lost a lot of players while we’ve only lost a couple. Beating Celtic last weekend only helped to increase the good feeling. 
So a home game against Stenny seemed like a good chance to get off to a winning start, which we did. It wasn’t the most glamorous of victories but it was a victory nonetheless and that’s what matters.
It’s always nice to see David Rowson get a goal even if his opening goal today was somewhat of a fluke, taking a huge deflection off off a Stenny defender. There was nothing flukey about Tommy Stewart’s goal though, with the striker taking the ball well from a Kris Doolan pass and slotting a cool finish into the far corner whilst running away from goal.
Thistle looked pretty tight at the back all game despite the absence of club captain Alan Archibald, with David Rowson taking over the captain’s armband. Centre back pairing Conrad Balatoni and Willie Kinniburgh strolled through most of the game with full backs Aaron Sinclair and Paul Paton both strong on the attack and in defence. Stenny’s goal was a strange one, a looped ball to the back of the defence where Stewart Kean knocked the ball down into the ground before it bounced over ‘keeper Scott Fox and into the net.
It’s good to get the first match out of the way with a victory and Thistle now move onto the next round of the Ramsden Cup and look ahead to playing Berwick at Firhill next week in the League Cup.
David Rowson
Thistle line up:
1. Scott Fox
2. Paul Paton
3. Aaron Sinclair
4. Stuart Bannigan
5.Willie Kinniburgh
6. Conrad Balatoni
7. Iain Flannigan
8. David Rowson
9. Kris Doolan
10. Tommy Stewart
11. Chris Erskine
Whilst i won’t put the Stenny line up here, I’ll mention they had six ex-Thistle players, pretty unbelievable! (Stevie Murray, Kev McKinlay, Eric Paton, Martyn Corrigan and Brown “what a wierd name” Ferguson and Chris McCluskey). Murray in particular looked threatening throughout the match and it was lucky for the Jags that his team mates didn’t match his standard, although their big #5 certainly did.
Mumblings And Ramblings 