O’Ware and tear at Jags as Bell fears the worst for crocked Tam
DUNDEE UNITED 3 PARTICK THISTLE 1
CAMMY BELL, the Partick Thistle keeper, has spoken of his heartfelt fears over Thomas O’Ware potentially being sidelined for a crucial chunk of the season as they await confirmation of his injury.
O’Ware is preparing to undergo a scan today in the wake of Saturday’s setback which saw him limp off after just six minutes suffering from a knee injury which proved pivotal in their 3-1 defeat at the hands of one of their rivals for promotion.
The 25-year-old’s enforced departure opened the floodgates to allow Dundee United to surge into the lead almost immediately after through Paul Watson who also headed another after the interval, prior to Craig Curran’s late clincher to render substitute Chris Erskine’s injury-time strike nothing more than a mere consolation.
It was a sorry sight to see O’Ware, who moved to Firhill from Morton in the summer, leaving the field and Alan Archibald’s side never quite recovered.
Bell, for one, is simply hoping his new team-mate’s injury isn’t as bad as first feared. “It’s hard not to fear for Tom when you saw the way he had to go down and then go off,” reflected Bell, who was utterly helpless for all three United goals.
“We can only wait and see but injuries to the knee are never good. We could potentially be looking at him being sidelined for a lengthy spell so we have to be realistic.
“The big man is a real, committed professional and not someone to go down easily.
“It wasn’t ideal him going off at such an early stage. As yet, we don’t know the extent of the damage and we’ll need to await the results of the scan, but it didn’t look great at the time.”
This was Thistle’s second defeat in three league outings since being demoted to the Championship and, if truth be told, Archibald’s new-look side had only themselves to blame for leaving Tayside licking their wounds.
Even without O’Ware’s physical presence to withstand aerial onslaughts from the likes of former Jags defender Frederic Frans, the visitors ought to have coped a lot better then they did, conceding goals at set-plays in both the sixth and 78th minute.
Bell was left thoroughly exposed all afternoon and the former Rangers, Kilmarnock and Dundee United No 1 admitted he felt vulnerable, such was the lack of genuine support in front of him.
“It wasn’t great from our point of view,” stated the 31-year-old keeper.
“We spoke beforehand about picking up certain players so roles had been delegated.
“It’s not all about height and size either. Sometimes you need to show greater desire and willingness to pick up runners and match runs and we didn’t so it cost us.
“The second goal, in particular, was a total free header and their guy – Paul Watson – isn’t the biggest but we just left him to it and didn’t offer a proper challenge.
“It’s difficult as a keeper to stop things when there’s no challenge so that’s something we must put a stop to.”
Thistle now find themselves hosting league leaders Morton at Firhill this weekend. A win is needed to relieve some of the early-season pressure and Bell is convinced Archibald’s men will come good.
“It’s still early days and we’ve had so many changes,” said Bell.
“The league is going to be very tight this season with no runaway winner, that’s how I see things.
“But we’ve got enough quality within our dressing-room to start getting consistency and results which will see us find some form.”
Meanwhile, two-goal hero Watson admitted his only sense of frustration arose after conceding such a late goal to Erskine in the dying moments.
.”It does leave a sour taste in the mouth,” admitted Watson. “It was just a bit frustrating with the goal we lost at the end.
“We were desperate to get that first clean sheet in the league this season.
“It was very much avoidable. We need to cut that sort of thing out.”