ARDEER Thistle boss Sean Kenney has hailed the Stevenston side's support for "making us a better team".

Kenney was running out of superlatives for the home fans as he praised the Ardeer faithful for their backing after his side's Scottish Junior Cup second round win.

Thistle made it into the third round after a 3-0 victory over Dundee St James, a match which started in an unusual fashion.

With just seven minutes on the clock, an off the ball incident led to a player from each side seeing red - and a vast majority of the match being 10 vs 10.

Despite this, Thistle proved to be too much to handle for the Midlands League side.

Owen Densham put Ardeer ahead after 22 minutes, with no further scoring in the first half.

In the second 45, Thistle put their foot down with substitute Marc Wardrope adding a second on 68 minutes before Jack Loudon wrapped up the victory in the dying moments.

“I’m delighted with it," Kenney told the club's social media team after the match.

"I thought the boys were really good after getting off to a strange start. I thought it was a really professional performance.

“We’ve conceded late in the last couple of games, so when it went 1-0 and it was that way for a while that doubt could creep into some people’s mind – but I think we were excellent.”

Kenney had particular praise for the impact made by his substitutes on the day.

He added: “Bringing Marc [Wardrope] on at half-time worked really well. I thought his energy was excellent then he showed a bit of quality as with the goal – it came at a right good time.

“I’m delighted with everyone that played, the subs as well. No disrespect to anyone but we were bringing on quality – which we’ve not always been blessed with.

“It’s been a very good day for us, into the next round, and it was thoroughly deserved.”

The Ardeer Stadium boss was also pleased to see his side pick up a clean sheet for just the second time this season.

Kenney continued: “Defending can be boring for people that don’t know it but there was loads of things there the boys done which were really impressive.

“It all comes from hard work, from the front, if we don’t have that we don’t get a clean sheet – and the way the boys worked for it was superb.”

However, the highest praise of all was reserved for the home support in Stevenston.

Kenney explained: “The fans deserve more than thanks, I think they know how much we appreciate them.

“We’re all in this together and we wouldn’t be half decent without them – they make us a better team.”