Neil Scally has highlighted Blair Lyons, Mouhamed ‘Sena’ Niang and Rangers loanee Kieran Wright for praise after another Partick Thistle friendly display.
The Jags are preparing for life in League One this term as Ian McCall’s men look for an automatic return to the Championship. First up is the League Cup group stages, starting with St Mirren on Wednesday night.
In their final pre-season match they played Hearts, a youthful Jags side doing well despite the 2-0 defeat. A full-strength Jambos side had to work hard for victory, something that McCall will take heart from.
Speaking after the game, assistant manager Scally had praise for Sena, Lyons and Rangers kid Wright in particular: “In terms of his aggression, how he (Sena) was pressing the ball and his fitness levels, he was brilliant today. I did think in the first half most of the boys did really well. I don’t even mind about the penalty miss, I thought the save was fantastic from the goalkeeper.
“We had a goal that looked fine from where we were standing. To play against Hearts – who we know have a great squad – with some of our fringe boys as well as first team boys, to compete well for 60 minutes, we were pleased with it as a workout.
“Kieran’s brilliant, he’s very vocal. He had a couple of wee things that he’ll need to tidy up on but I thought he did well. To a man, I don’t think anyone didn’t if I’m honest.
“We figured we wanted to add a little more pace and some players that we thought could make something out of nothing. Blair’s one of them and Connor Murray is another that we think will add a wee bit of excitement to the team.
“Blair definitely catches the eye when he’s running at people, he just needs to work on a few things when we’re not on the ball, like making sure he’s switched on and his body angles are good.”