Doolan gives ‘ghost goal’ bonus to cancer charity

PARTICK THISTLE have paid Kris Doolan his bonus for scoring a ‘ghost goal’ against Morton — as the club remain without an explanation as to why it was not awarded. Leading the Greenock side through Chris Erskine’s goal on Saturday, Doolan’s 57th minute left-foot shot clearly hit the back of the net before being kicked into touch by a visiting defender. Despite the celebrations of the Thistle players — and the Morton players walking back to the halfway line to restart the game — assistant Jordan Stokoe convinced referee Barry Cook to award a throw-in instead. Partick still won the game 1-0 but the extraordinary incident has yet to merit an explanation from the SFA. Last night, though, Partick agreed to pay Doolan what he was contractually entitled to for scoring. Insisting the money should go to a cancer charity, the striker’s gesture was matched pound for pound by the club. Doolan said: ‘Saturday was bizarre and I still can’t understand what the officials have seen to disallow it. ‘Having not scored so far this season, I was desperate to get off the mark and thought I had done that when the ball hit the back of the net on Saturday. ‘When (Thistle chief executive) Gerry Britton contacted me on Monday to tell me the club was paying my bonus, I knew I wanted to give it to charity. The goal wasn’t given, after all. ‘The work Beatson Cancer Charity does is fantastic and I couldn’t think of a better cause to support.’