Thistle hold no fears for the Fife

The Methil men managed to contain St Johnstone in the opening Betfred Cup group game earlier in the season and will need to be as strong defensively on Saturday when they host Partick Thistle in the Irn-Bru Cup.

Alan Archibald’s side have had an up and down start to the new season, winning two and losing two of their opening four games, and the Methil men will be aiming to dump them out of the cup when they meet at Bayview.

Long said: “Every game for us is a big game and we’ll be aiming to kick on from Montrose with the clean sheet and the win.

“We’ll stick together, get back in for training this week and prepare for Partick.

“We’ll be giving them a good run.”

Long’s clean sheet on Saturday was his first of the league season.

The ‘keeper certainly earned it, pulling off a stunning late triple save.

“I can’t remember much about it,” he said.

“It all happened so quickly and I was just up and down, up and down.

“It was good, not just for me but for the whole team.

“We had to all dig in and throw our bodies on the line.

“The first half was maybe as good as we’ve played all season and in the second we had to soak the pressure up.”