WITH around 70 minutes on the clock and Greenock Morton laying siege to Jamie Sneddon’s goal, a game of pinball broke out in the Partick Thistle box. Several deflections and fraught kicks later, it landed at the feet of Gavin Reilly, the Cappielow crowd holding its breath in anticipation of a certain equaliser.
Only that didn’t happen. Somehow Reilly skewed it wide of Sneddon’s open goal, looking to the heavens in disbelief. At that moment, it just felt like one of those days for Morton.
But the measure of a good striker is one who moves onto the next chance and Reilly did just that, scoring a fine equaliser 10 minutes later and taking centre stage of the Ton’s wild celebrations when Robbie Muirhead netted a winner with just five minutes to go.
“A chance? It was a sitter,” said Reilly, the Livingston loanee. “So, I am very relieved. But it happens in games sometimes. Strikers miss millions of chances.
“I’ve just slashed at it. I’d rather not talk about it and talk about the positives of getting a big three points for ourselves.
“It’s about taking that next one and I am delighted I did. It was probably harder than the first one. But we fully deserved to win, especially in the second-half.”
If Reilly’s moment to savour was testament to his never-give-up attitude, then the same could be said of Muirhead. Having only started one game since the turn of the year, he made the most of his moment, cupping his ears to his former support in celebration.
“He could easily have tossed it off when he came on today but he made an impact,” said his teammate. “He has a lot of quality and just needs to keep doing what he’s doing.”
While the strikers’ salvo all but secured Morton’s survival, taking them nine points clear of bottom-placed Dunfermline, it was a bitter blow to Thistle’s lingering hopes of wrestling the title from Kilmarnock.
They now sit eight points behind the league leaders, albeit with a game in hand and a trip to Rugby Park to come before the month is out.
"We know how tight the league is and we know how hard the league is,” said midfielder Kyle Turner, whose early goal had given Thistle the lead. “All the teams in the bottom are fighting for their lives . As you could see.
"Listen, it's tough and we know it's not going to be easy."
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