Luke McBeth’s first goal at Firhill was, by the defender’s own admission, a long time coming. But boy, was it worth the wait.
Few would contend the 25-year-old is a great goal scorer, but there is perhaps an argument to be made that he is a scorer of great goals after the former Glenafton player notched his second-ever goal draped in red-and-yellow in the weekend’s 2-0 win over Ayr United.
McBeth’s first goal for the Jags – a long-range thunderbolt away to Airdrieonians – was a memorable one, and he followed that up with another excellent strike to put Thistle 2-0 up against the Honest Men inside half an hour on Saturday afternoon.
After a deep free-kick from Logan Chalmers was initially repelled by the visitors’ defence, the ball fell invitingly to McBeth just inside the opposition box. He cushioned it with his chest to bring it under control before lashing the ball past Ayr goalkeeper Josh Clarke to put Thistle in the driving seat, and they wouldn’t look back as they saw out the 2-0 win.
Luke McBeth was delighted to score his first goal at Firhill at long last (Image: SNS) “I’m buzzing,” McBeth said. “It's a good feeling. I just closed my eyes and hit it and it’s gone in. I've only scored two, so that's my second. I've missed about ten sitters, so I'm hoping I can start scoring now and it'll be better.”
It was an apt occasion for McBeth to grab his first home goal for Thistle, given his brother Danny was in the stands taking in the game. Another of McBeth’s brothers, Johnny, was tuning in all the way from Kenya to see how the versatile defender fared.
Some streaming issues meant he missed his brother’s big moment against Scott Brown’s men, but McBeth was pleased to add some fuel to his sibling rivalry. Believe it or not, the Thistle player – who stands at around 6’4” and is built like a fridge – is not even the biggest athlete within his own family.
“I've missed about 40 sitters here so it feels very good,” McBeth continued. “It’s some feeling when it goes in.
“My family are here, so it's amazing to see them. My brother Johnny is away in Kenya right now and he was trying to watch, but I think he missed it. He missed the good bit!
“He's over there for a training camp thing. He's a mad fitness guy, he does Ironmans and all that. So he's away in Kenya doing... God knows. Oh aye [he is the more athletic one], it’s night and day. I don't know what he does, he gets up and does 100k a day I think.”
His brother may have him beat when it comes to long-distance running, but could he have hit such a sweetly-struck volley?
McBeth laughs: “He’ll say he taught me that!”
Saturday’s victory was Thistle’s second in a row, and extended the Jags’ unbeaten run under the interim management team of Brian Graham and Mark Wilson to four games.
In that time, Thistle have shipped just two goals, and the return of the back three has added a new sense of defensive steeliness to the side. In the last four games, clear-cut chances have been few and far between, and McBeth believes he and his team-mates are benefitting from the change in system.
“We’ve felt comfortable the last few games, which is good,” he explained. “I think we just know when to press, when not to press, when to sit off and it's working for us right now.
“The boys up top are working really hard to win the ball back and it makes our [the defence’s] job so much easier because all we need to do is deal with one straight ball, so it's been brilliant for us. We can just sit and clean up, so it's been good. I really enjoyed it.
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“I know when Dan [O’Reilly] and Ashy [ Lee Ashcroft] are going up for a header, 90 per cent of the time they are winning it, so it's quite comfortable. You can see them [Ayr] looking to go long and we’re dealing with it.
“And with Banzo [Stuart Bannigan] and Kyle [Turner] picking up every second ball, and Bud [Lewis Budinauckas] doesn't have much to do, so it makes our job so much easier. We just need to deal with one ball and then they can play.
“Maybe it's confidence. [Kris] Doolan and Paul [McDonald], we all really liked them, really got on with them, but it's probably the players that need to look at themselves during that period. They probably did all they could and it's just, at the time, something wasn't clicking.
“I think now the last few games we've been told to play out from the back more and it seems to be working a wee bit better, so it's enjoyable to play in and hopefully it lasts.
“I think we all know that the start of the season wasn't good enough and whoever came in, we needed to be looking at ourselves to do better and thankfully the last few games have been better. So we just need to carry that into, hopefully, the play-offs.”
