McAuley pleased with Partridge - Official Site

Official LFC Website, 8 Sept 2004
MCAULEY PLEASED WITH PARTRIDGE
By Steve Hunter

Liverpool Reserve manager Hughie McAuley praised Richie Partridge for his
performance during the second string's 2-2 draw with Blackburn Rovers on
Tuesday night.
Playing only his second game in nine months after a serious knee injury the
Republic of Ireland Under-21 international scored the equaliser to give the
Reds a 2-2 draw and played the full 90 minutes.

McAuley told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Richie Partridge is looking sharper and
looking more like his old self. He has been out for nine months injured but
he was sharp out there and crossing good balls, and scored a good goal.

"That will give him the confidence and maybe he can press for a first team
chance or maybe somewhere else, we don't know. We will have to wait and see
but Richie Partridge will be just pleased he is playing football again.

"We scored two goals and really on chances we should have won the game. We
had good chances to finish the game off but we didn't take those, and Neil
Mellor was unlucky not to score a couple of goals.

"I thought Mellor worked hard in only his second game back. He has missed
all pre-season and this to be honest is his pre-season working on his
fitness and playing reserve games. The only way he will regain his match
fitness is by continuing to work hard.

"Having missed all the chances we could have lost the game as there was
some poor defending by us at times and careless mistakes."