You know it’s been a bad start to the the season when you are talking about fighting for your lives before a pumpkin has been carved, but that is precisely where Partick Thistle find themselves.
Hallowe’en is a far less scary prospect for Thistle supporters than the horror show they were subjected to at the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill on Saturday, as the presence of new manager Steve Clarke inspired Kilmarnock to a crucial and deserved first win of the campaign.
Little wonder then that Thistle striker Kris Doolan looked like he had seen a ghost as he faced the press in the aftermath of a woeful showing from his side that left them with boos ringing in their ears and three points adrift at the bottom of the table. The most frightening aspect of the afternoon was that manager Alan Archibald had to concede afterwards that the visiting players appeared to simply want it more, an unpalatable truth for a club stalwart like Doolan to bear.
“We don’t want to hear that Kilmarnock wanted it more, because we should be wanting it every bit as much,” said Doolan. “We’re fighting for our lives.
“I’m sure everybody is disappointed that we’ve not come away with any points. The players are really hurting.
“The fans are entitled to voice their opinion and tell us what they think, because they pay money to come and watch.
“We’ve got to deal with that, and now it’s up to us. We’re the ones who can change the results on the pitch, and we do have a run of games where we can turn things round.
“There’s just a feeling of total disappointment. It was a game we thought we could really stamp our authority on and get three points, but obviously to come away with a 2-0 defeat is hard to take.
“We never got going. We tried to pass the ball but nothing was coming of it, and it gets frustrating when it’s like that, but we have to find another way to win a game.”
And they have to do it fast, with Dundee next to visit Maryhill this Saturday before a visit to Hamilton. While the sterling work of Jags boss Archibald has bought him time to turn this around, there is little doubt that these games are now taking on the look of six-pointers even this early in the campaign.
For Kilmarnock, all the talk post-match centred on the beginning of an exciting new era under former Chelsea assistant and West Brom boss Clarke.
Their victory here came from a typically cool Kris Boyd finish in the first half after Niall Keown misjudged a Jordan Jones cross to put the ball on a plate for the hitman, and a rocket from Adam Frizzell after the break that kissed the crossbar on its way past the despairing dive of Tomas Cerny.
Frizzell is hoping that the win can kick-start their own poor opening to the season, and he is looking forward to absorbing the wisdom of a coach who has worked at such close quarters with the likes of Jose Mourinho.
“It is a real coup,” Frizzell said. “I hope Mourinho will make an appearance at Kilmarnock at some point. But it will be a great learning experience.”
“We all felt we had a point to prove and we did that”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here