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MANAGER Paul Hartley and club captain Mitch Megginson spoke to the media following our 1-1 League One draw with Partick Thistle at Firhill Stadium.

We recovered from falling behind to a Joe Cardle goal to earn a point, with Mitch claiming the equaliser in the 82nd minute.

The manager admitted he is delighted with the way we performed against our full-time hosts in what was our first match of any sort since the beginning of January.

He said: “It’s a fantastic result for us when you consider it had been 10 and a half weeks since the lads played.

“We were really good, especially in the second half, against a strong Thistle team.

“When we went a goal down the players showed great resilience and character to come back.

“Mitch scored a great goal and might have got another one after that, so we’ve got to be pleased with how the afternoon went.

“Firhill is always a hard place to go to – so doing as well as we did there in our first game for 10 and a half weeks was great.

“We’ve only been back training for a couple of weeks so the players deserve a lot of credit.

“It was a great team effort but there were also some excellent individual performances – Ross Graham was different class.

“Cammy Logan also did well at right back, we only took him off because he was feeling a little discomfort with his hamstring.

“We have to be careful because we don’t have the biggest of squads, we were only able to name 15 outfield players for this one.

“It means everyone will be asked to do their bit over the next few weeks in what we know is going to be a tough end to the season.”

When asked by one reporter if he sees us as challengers for the League One title, Paul replied: “We’ve never ever said we were challengers, we’ve always said it’s about doing as best as we can and staying in this league.

“Who knows what is going to happen in the next 10 games or so?

“We were all out for a long time so you are going to get funny results and injuries, it’s going to be a test using your squad as best as you can.

“No matter what happens between now and the end of the season I will be proud of the players.”

Mitch, whose goal was his 164th in 190 appearances for Cove, said: “It’s a sign of how far we have progressed as a club that we were disappointed to only get a draw at Firhill.

“I felt we were by far the better side in the second half.

“Things were a bit more even in the first 45, probably because both teams were trying to get back into the swing of things after going so long without a game.

“We both created chances after that but I feel we deserved more because of our over-all play.

“But we can take a lot of encouragement from matching up to a full-time team as we did.

“I feel proud to have been given the honour to captain this group of players.

“I get to lead them out on to the park but I really don’t have to do much beyond that.

“That’s because our whole squad is so professional and totally dedicated to doing everything possible to bring success to Cove.”

Defender Scott Ross missed the game at Firhill after suffering a knock in training but is expected to be fit for next Saturday’s visit to East Fife.

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