Tom Lang was proudly handed the captaincy ahead of Raith Rovers’ trip to Firhill.
It was not the outcome he would have wanted as Rovers put in a rare poor performance in a 3-0 defeat.
To be fair to the big defender, it was his first defeat of the season.
Lang missed the start of the campaign as he recovered from a long-term absence due to a knee injury.
The 25-year-old made his return in the SPFL Trust Trophy win versus Morton before sitting out the next match against Arbroath.
Since starting the subsequent draw with Morton he has been part of the team that then went 14 matches without defeat.
All good things come to an end
The run was always going to end at some point but the manner of the defeat is what bothered the players most.
“For the first 25 minutes I thought it was a pretty even game. Then it’s a poor goal to concede,” said Lang.
“It wasn’t good enough as a team collectively. I thought we were off it today, all over the park.
“It’s disappointing because we’ve been on a decent run and being hard to beat.
“I thought it was the complete opposite of that – we were far too easy to beat.
“We want to put it behind us quickly and move on – there are some big games coming up in the league now.”
It’s noticeable that Lang’s mind jumped ahead of next week’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Rangers.
The Rovers players will be aware a repeat of that performance could mean a long afternoon at Ibrox but, regardless of the outcome on Sunday, Lang’s mind is on the bread and butter that follows.
Still believing
“We’re looking more at the league,” he said.
“We’ve got three home games coming up now in the league and they’re the ones we need to get some points in if we’ve got any chance of play-offs.
“We won’t stop believing but we will need to get our heads down and focus and try and get that play-off spot.
“But results like Saturday can’t happen. We need to make sure it’s a one-off.”
Thistle were ruthless as Scott Tiffoney’s brace and Brian Graham’s tap-in made it a comfortable afternoon for the Jags.
Lang was disappointed with how easily he and the rest of the Rovers team surrendered.
“We need to forget about it, look back at the goes quickly and move on as a team and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he added.
Ian Murray says Raith Rovers were ‘sloppy’ and ‘got what they deserved’ in comprehensive defeat https://t.co/ioRUwYrzUX pic.twitter.com/s4IWW5XhV8
— The Courier Sport (@thecouriersport) March 4, 2023
“Maybe we’ve not been playing great every week on that run.
“But in nine times out of 10 in those games, I think we’ve been really hard to beat and getting results – maybe picking up a point in some games where we might not deserve to.”
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