I had to Jack in playing to be McNamara’s No.2

Jackie McNamara might have kicked off Simon Donnelly’s coaching career.

But the ex-Partick Thistle and Dundee United No.2 revealed it was his pal who ENDED his time as a player.

While both men were still registered on the books at Firhill, McNamara got his first job in management.

And despite the fact that Donnelly was still fighting fit and playing for the Jags, McNamara urged him to swap the right wing for the dugout.

Donnelly said: “Jackie and I were playing together at Partick and it was great – we thought we’d play out the rest of our careers together.

“We’d started at Celtic and were going to finish at Thistle.

“In one of our first games at Ayr, he found me with a pass and I thought, ‘This is going to be brilliant.’

“But then Jackie broke his leg and that finished him.

“Fast forward and he ends up getting the manager’s job.

“I remember having the conversation with him when I was 35, I asked if he wanted me to keep playing.

“He said: ‘No, I want you in the dugout with me.’ So everybody he speaks to now, he tells them that he retired me!

“I was still fit enough, I was still training but just wasn’t involved on a Saturday. Maybe I could have kept going.

“But the assistant manager role was new for me and Jackie wanted me to focus on it 100 per cent.

“It would have been quite difficult to do both so I don’t have any gripes.”