TRUTH WORKS
PARTICK v HAMILTON
KRIS DOOLAN believes a no holds barred dressing-room summit can keep Partick Thistle in the Premiership.
A frank assessment of the dismal run that has failed to produce a goal in Thistle’s last five games has taken place ahead of today’s crunch clash against Hamilton.
Partick are bottom of the table, one point behind Ross County, and striker Doolan insists collective responsibility for the crisis has been taken as they try to revive their fortunes.
He said: “It’s a critical stage of the season and we’ve sat down and talked things through at length with the manager.
“We’ve gone over what we think has gone wrong and what we can do better.
“It’s an honest bunch of lads so when we do have these discussions, people don’t shy away from them.
“They make mistakes, they put KRIS DOOLAN BY GORDON PARKS their hands up, we talk about it, get it out in the open and then we try to go on the training pitch and put it right.”
Doolan’s frustration at their relegation fight has been fuelled by being sidelined in recent weeks but he’s adamant his search for a 100th Partick league goal can end this weekend.
He said: “I don’t ever look at the personal thing. I’ve been here long enough, through the doom and gloom and the good times.
“I’ve seen both sides and I know what it takes for us to score goals. I’ve not scored 100 flukes.
“I’ve scored because I know how to be in there to score them. I can see the team and myself but I don’t put myself before the team.
“That’s why when I’m not playing I don’t kick off for whatever reason because the manager makes the decisions. We have five games now where we’ll hopefully throw everything at teams and score our way to safety.”
After a week that has been about dressing-room infighting at Rangers, Doolan is adamant the characters at Firhill ensure any finger pointing doesn’t get out of hand.
He said: “I can understand how these things can go horribly wrong for whatever reason but it’s down to the type of people you have in your team.
“We all make mistakes and only us as players can get us out of this. We got ourselves into it and we’re not blaming anybody else.
“This was needed. We had to go through that and find ways we can be more organised. We had to try to work out a strategy and that involved the full squad.
“It was good. The manager involves the players in that type of discussion instead of just making his own decision and that’s important.
“We need standards as we have let those standards slip. We have five games to bring that standard up to the level we know it can be.”