Jags owe boss a performance:
Paterson reckons it’ll make up for last poor outing
Alan Paterson insists his East Kilbride Thistle players owe him a performance against Rossvale tonight - because they were an embarrassment on their last outing.
The Jags, whose Central League Cup clash with Clydebank on Saturday was postponed, are due to host the Central District First Division leaders at the Showpark and Paterson is eager for his side to atone for February’s 4-0 defeat in the reverse fixture.
It was a terrible day all round for the Jags after key midfielder David McKean was ruled out for over a year with a broken kneecap, so the Thistle gaffer is hoping his side have better luck this time around.
Paterson said: “The players owe the club a performance against Rossvale because the last time they just didn’t turn up.
“I locked them in the changing room for 45 minutes after the game and they all got a real dressing down.
“They knew it wasn’t good enough and they told a few home truths to each other as well.
“A lot of them were embarrassed by the performance, and rightly so, because it was the poorest I’ve seen them - even the subs that day that came on were flat.
“Davie’s injury probably didn’t help things, but we are on a run of three games unbeaten at the moment and we want to keep that going.
“Nobody is expecting us to get a result, but we’ve shown against [second place] Benburb and in the Junior Cup we can get results against the bigger teams.
“We have to believe we can do that again.”
Thistle had hoped to mark their 50th anniversary in style at the weekend with the visit of Clydebank, but a waterlogged Showpark put paid to that.
However, they now have three home fixtures in a row coming up with the visit of Rossvale (kick-off 6.30pm) followed by Port Glasgow on Saturday (2pm) and Glasgow Perthshire next Wednesday (6.30pm).
Paterson added: “I hope the pitch holds up and we can get these games on.
“The pitch was looking good on Saturday, but it was still soft under foot, so it was the sensible decision not to play the game.
“Given the occasion, it would have been nice to play and a lot of people were coming down to see the 50th anniversary game, but we would have been playing the game for the wrong reasons.
“If it went ahead it could have ruined the pitch for the next few weeks. We’ve got a lot of games still to play, so we can’t afford to make things worse.”