ON Monday, Partick Thistle’s Twitter account proudly posted the club’s goals-per-game ratio compared to other teams from the top four leagues in Scotland and England.
Manchester City topped the charts, banging in 3.63 every matchday – in no small part due to the Erling Haaland’s phenomenal start to life in the Premier League – and Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic were in second place, scoring 3.38 per league game thus far. Then, just ahead of Liverpool, sit Thistle in third, providing 2.63 goals per game on average.
The facts speak for themselves: so far this season, McCall’s side have been one of the most prolific in the UK. But the Thistle manager couldn’t help feeling that Thistle’s place in the standings could have been loftier still, had United not been on the receiving end of a 9-0 drubbing by Celtic earlier in the campaign.
🧮 A prolific start to the league season! pic.twitter.com/KbPBKPi5eb
— Partick Thistle FC (@PartickThistle) October 3, 2022
“Yeah, and we would have been in second outwith the anomaly of the Dundee United game! It was a bit disappointing, that,” he joked. “We have scored a lot of goals and we could have scored far more. And we have been defending really well – there has been a few anomalies there as well.
“Two or three of the goals… the deflection against Cove, the freak deflection against Hamilton, the goal with the last kick of the ball against Inverness – which didn’t mean too much because we were winning 4-0.
“We do have two full-backs who like to support and get high up the pitch and it’s working just now. We won’t rule out changing it later in the season if the pitch isn’t as good because it’s fantastic just now, all credit to the groundsman. But we have got players that can play in a different formation if they need to.”
The Jags have been spreading the goals around this term. Twelve different players have found the net at one time or another in all competitions and that’s the way McCall likes it. There is no over-reliance on the performance of individuals, and it leaves the Thistle boss with a happy selection headache before each game.
Take summer signing Anton Dowds as a case in point. The centre-forward has been used primarily as a substitute so far this season, often coming off the bench for the last half-hour or so of matches, and has racked up four goals in seven league appearances. And after digging into the data, he has been reminding his manager of a startling discovery in his bid to gain a place in the starting XI.
“The one player in midfield that hasn’t scored yet this season was our highest scoring midfielder last season, [captain Ross] Docherty,” McCall explained. “He scored about seven last year but he’s being asked to do some different things this season.
“Anton Dowds keeps telling me his goals per minutes is better than Haaland’s! It’s about a goal every 30 minutes [Haaland is averaging a goal every 48 minutes in the Premier League, compared to Dowds' 34 in the Championship]. He tells me all the time. I tell you, I’d swap him for Haaland tomorrow!
“He’s another one of the new ones who has integrated really well. The likes of [Harry] Milne, who is becoming a bit of a cult hero here already, and Dowds have integrated really well because they are just good types.
“The two boys from Rangers have come in with a total absence of ego, which is fantastic, so it’s all very positive just now. But I have been doing this long enough to know that by 10 o’clock on Friday night that can change. And with our supporter base, it doesn’t matter if we have won the last however many games. If we get beat, I will get pelters. That’s just the way it is.”
Thistle travel to the Highlands to face Inverness tomorrow evening and McCall only expects there to be one absentee – Danny Mullen, who will miss the fixture after falling unwell.
One player who is virtually the first name on McCall’s team sheet at the moment is left-back Harry Milne, who is quickly becoming something of a fans’ favourite at Firhill. The summer signing from Cove Rangers was recruited for his attacking abilities, McCall admits, but the 25-year-old’s defensive acumen has caught even his own manager by surprise.
“I think he’s getting there but there is still way more to come from him,” McCall said. “He is a far, far better defender than I thought he was. He is an absolutely outstanding defender. I brought him here because of his attributes going forward.
“He hasn’t been able to have a set partnership [with a left winger] at the moment because it has changed quite a lot due to injuries and things, whereas [Jack] McMillan and [Steven] Lawless have got a pretty good understanding just now.
“So there is more to come from him. I think he is going to become a player capable of playing at a really high level.”
