War horses now key for Jags’ revival, says Erskine
CHRIS ERSKINE feels the burden of eliminating Partick Thistle’s late calamities rests with Alan Archibald’s most experienced charges.
The Firhill club have lost their past two matches, against Hamilton and Dundee, to injurytime goals having taken the lead in both encounters.
Without a win in their past five games, they travel north tomorrow to face a Ross County side in even more dire straits than their Glasgow visitors.
Owen Coyle resigned as manager last night with the Highland club currently three points adrift of Thistle at the foot of the Premiership table.
Speaking before news of Coyle’s departure emerged yesterday, Erskine admitted the older hands like himself in the Jags squad have to do their bit to ensure the team don’t slip below newly-rudderless County.
‘Everyone feels that responsibility,’ said the 31-yearold. ‘But for guys like myself who have been here for a long time, the club maybe means that wee bit more to us.
‘We’ve seen everything the club has gone through, and while nobody wants the season to end badly, we probably feel that wee bit more responsibility than the others.
‘We all want to get the club out of this, though. It’s all of our jobs at the end of the day, and not only the players, it’s everybody involved in the club.
‘I’ve seen it before at Dundee United when they went down. You’re looking at guys in the kitchen and offices who aren’t sure about their jobs, so it’s a big responsibility for all the players and the management.
‘The whole club suffers when something like relegation happens, and it would be a real shame after the progress we’ve made the last few years.’
Erskine spent much of the past week reflecting on not only how David Templeton was able to score so late on for Accies but how Gary Woods still had time to deny his header with a contender for save of the season.
‘I was gutted with that,’ said the Firhill midfielder. ‘To concede the goal in the first place was bad enough, but to then get another chance with a minute or so to go and for it not to go in was awful.
‘I probably couldn’t have headed it any better. It was right in the top corner. You have to give credit to the keeper, he’s read where the header is going. I don’t think I could have done anything different.’
Although the weather has hugely hampered Partick’s preparations for the trip north, Erskine is desperate for the chance to end a grim a run with victory.
‘The weather hasn’t been great this week to say the least, so we’ve no idea where we will be training next or if we will be able to,’ he added.
‘You can only do what you can do, I’m sure we’ll sort something out and prepare for the game the best we can. Every time you lose a game, you just want the next one to come, so I’m hoping the game is on.
‘Because the games we’ve lost in the last two weeks have been against our direct rivals — ones we were hoping to win to get ourselves out of the mess we are in — it’s been even more frustrating.
‘It hasn’t gone the way we hoped, so we want to play another game even more so now.’