TALKING THISTLE Doolan dying tobecome theHampden hero for Jags
WE MAY be shivering through another cold snap as the long, dark winter drags on, but Partick Thistle striker Kris Doolan is already dreaming of Hampden in the sun.
The Jags take on St Johnstone this Saturday at McDiarmid Park for a place in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals, and Doolan is of course focusing on the task at hand.
But he can’t help but let his mind wander a little to speculate on what it would mean to him to walk out at the national stadium in the colours of the club he has come to love.
“It’s a great opportunity and regardless of who were playing this weekend it’s another 90 minutes where we have a chance to get the club a step closer to Hampden,” Doolan said.
“There’s a good feeling about the cup games because the belief is there, and we’ll be going out there with fire in our bellies and hopefully we can get the win.
“It would mean the world to me to walk out at Hampden in a Thistle jersey. When you’ve been at the club so long and seen us go out of the cup pretty early most of the time, I would just love to see the Thistle colours at Hampden.
“It would be such a great day for us and the fans. The supporters have been great and they are great week-in, weekout, so to give them the chance to go and support their team at Hampden is something that the players really want to do.
“On a personal note, I’ll be
It would mean the world to me to walk out at Hampden for Thistle
giving it my all to make sure we can get through.”
Doolan is hoping that the goalscoring touch that has deserted not only him, but the entire Thistle team in recent weeks, will be rediscovered in Perth.
Thistle haven’t scored a league goal since Doolan’s strike against Dundee just after Christmas, and he concedes that a more attacking approach may be necessary.
“The cup games are always welcome whether you are flying high at the top of the league or not,” he said.
“It’s one of those really good weekends when the club enjoys a week away from the league, but it’s important that we can go to St Johnstone and not just attack, but attack properly.
“We want to play with the bit between our teeth and get those chances flying in the back of the net now.
“We’ve always performed pretty well at McDiarmid Park. It’s somewhere that personally and as a team we like to go.
“It suits us at times there, so we’ll go there with the proper mind-set and we’ll see what happens.”
IF THEY are to progress in the competition though, Doolan says that Thistle must heed the lessons of the recent league defeat to the Saints at Firhill.
“It seems to happen to us quite a lot that when we get teams in the cup that we’ve either just played or are just about to, and that’s not ideal,” he said.
“We’re used to it though, and with them beating us at home recently we’ll be looking to turn that around.
“St Johnstone are good at killing the game. When they get their noses in front, there aren’t many teams that can pull them back.
“We have to learn from the last game and take the game to them, because if we can get that first goal it will be vital.
“We’re hopeful on Saturday that we’ll go there and play good, attacking football.” Operations to seek clarity on the guidelines surrounding serious foul play and in particular, ‘excessive force’,” a statement said.
“A number of challenges in various SPFL Premiership matches (and high-profile matches in other major leagues) over the last few weeks would more than meet the criteria both Scott McDonald and Carl McHugh were judged by, and subsequently ordered off for, but only cautions were issued.
“This causes a great deal of confusion and frustration for our playing staff, coaching staff and supporters, and it is making it increasingly difficult to say with any certainty what is and isn’t a red card offence when talking about ‘excessive force’.”