Partick Thistle Football Club

There was precious little to be upbeat about at full-time at Central Park on Saturday afternoon. A combination of defensive slackness and an inability to convert chances at the other end combining to send Thistle to a 2-1 defeat.

It had all started in such promising fashion as well. Kris Doolan had started and performed well in the previous fixture with Falkirk and that performance earned him a starting berth on Saturday as well and it was his goal in the 16^th minute that put Thistle 1-0 ahead. That was as good as the afternoon would get for Thistle.

www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with the Thistle goal scorer in a windy Central Park car park and before talking about the disappointment of the eventual defeat we focused on the good part of the afternoon, Kris’ goal that gave us an all too brief lead.

“It was good that the gaffer had the faith to give me another start. I felt that I had done enough against Falkirk to keep my place in the team but felt that I needed to score against Cowdenbeath and I was confident that I would score against Cowdenbeath.”

“The weight on the pass from Paul Cairney was perfect and as soon as I hit it I knew that the ball was heading for the back of the net.”

Having opened the scoring Kris, as everyone else was, was naturally bitterly disappointed to see us concede an equaliser so soon afterwards.

“Having opened the scoring we should have pushed on from that and try and build the atmosphere on the back of that but conceding a goal so soon after scoring has killed that. They got a lift from scoring and at 1-1 the game can then really go any way.”

The equaliser and the goal that proved to be the winner were avoidable goals but rather than point the finger at any individual or individuals, Kris accepted that there was a collective responsibility throughout the team for the loss of these goals.

“We defend as a team and we defend from the front and the goals that we lost were soft goals to concede. We need though to try and bounce back from this defeat.”  

Even at 2-1 down, enough chances were created to still have gone on and won the game. Commented Kris;

“The closing stages of the game were very much like the Falkirk game with a lot of chances created but we need to take those chances.”

With no midweek game this coming week we will need to wait until Ayr United’s visit in the Challenge Cup to try and make amends for Saturday’s defeat and for Kris that game can’t come quickly enough.

 “The good thing about football, there is always another game seven days away and we need to try and put things right in that next game. We know that we have a fight on our hands to turn things around but fight we will have to do. The next two matches are at home and it is important to get two wins from those matches, to keep our interest in the Challenge Cup and to get moving up the league. We don’t want to be down near the foot of the table for longer that we need to be.”