Nightmare leaves Jags reeling:
Thistle give themselves a mountain to climb
John Brown slammed East Kilbride Thistle for their 10 minutes of madness in Saturday’s defeat to 10-man Wishaw.
The Jags coach, taking charge of the team alongside Allan Creer with gaffer Alan Paterson on holiday, was left reeling after the Showpark side went 3-0 down in the opening 10 minutes and failed to recover.
The visitors had Craig O’Brien sent off for a second bookable offence on the half hour mark and two minutes later Jonny Diack pulled one back for Thistle.
However, they couldn’t add to their tally with a late effort from Reece Clark controversially ruled out for offside and the return of influential midfielder Scott Hadden failing to bear fruit.
Brown said: “Those first 10 minutes were absolute madness and that killed us.
“If we play like that in any game you are going to struggle to pick up points.
“Half-time came at the wrong time for us. We’d got a goal back and I felt we were going to get a second before the break.
“But fair play to Wishaw. They were well organised and made it difficult for us to break them down.
“I’m really disappointed because I expected more from us in the second half after they’d come in at half-time knowing the performance wasn’t good enough.
“We were looking for a higher tempo and more urgency, but it wasn’t until the last 10 minutes that we saw that.
“We had Scott Hadden and Craig Tocher on the bench, so we brought them on and went for it.
“Reece had a goal chopped off for offside, where I felt he was onside, but other than that we didn’t trouble them enough. It wasn’t our day.”
A goal blitz from Vinnie McGuire, Justin Watson and Andy Duffy all but ended Thistle’s hopes before the game got going.
With a huge Junior Cup trip to Aberdeen to face Banks O’Dee this weekend, Brown was expecting more from the side and admitted gaffer Paterson shared those sentiments.
“I gave Alan a call after the game and he was really disappointed to hear about the manner of the performance,” said Brown.
“With the Scottish Cup game coming up, the boys should have been fighting for the jerseys, so I really hope they show a reaction on Saturday.
“It’s a big game and the good thing is the boys are usually well up for these games.”
The North Region Premier side are flying high with a 100 per cent record from their opening four league games this season, while Thistle have gone four games without a win.
Brown added: “Banks O’Dee will be big favourites and rightly so, but we like being the underdogs and trying to take games to teams.
“It’s going to be a difficult game, but all the boys are looking forward to it and I fully expect us to put on a good performance.”
Kick-off at Spain Park on Saturday is 2.30pm.