Miller: Thistle must play without fear
Kenny Miller claims that his Partick Thistle teammates are so scarred after almost dropping into League One last season that they’re now afraid to express themselves on the pitch.
On Friday at Cappielow the Jags were 2-0 up with just 17 minutes left but folded like a deck chair and ended up losing 3-2, leaving them back in the drop zone.
The 39- year- old was visibly upset afterwards. “There are good footballers in the team but maybe, on the back of last season, there is a bit of reluctance to show how good they are,” said the 39-year-old.
“Are they fearful of making a mistake? Our manager won’t criticise us for making a mistake as he wants us to play a certain brand of football.
“If you can’t do that when you’re 2- 0 up, are you going to do it when you’re 2- 0 down? Probably not, although then y o u’d at l ea s t be forced to try to do something about it.
“It’s not one area of the pitch or one individual either – it’s the collective that has to do better.
“To lose three goals in eight minutes is horrendous at any level. “There were words spoken at half- time and it was quite heated, even though we were ahead at that point.
“When you’ve been in the game for a while, you can smell it, you know it’s coming. “We said that if we didn’t change then this could happen so it wasn’t a surprise when it did. “We had to do something to change the rhythm and put our foot on the ball and take the sting out of the game. “But we never did. We bought into their fight and started scrapping for second balls when that’s the time you should be showing composure.”
However, Miller insists that under- fire manager Gary Caldwell will reverse the decline by bringing in players who aren’t scared of their own shadows.
“I’ve not come here for a relegation battle,” he said.
“But I don’t think it will be because the manger will be tireless to make sure that’s not the case.
“And if it’s not us as players that do it he’ll make sure there are other players who can do it. He knows what he wants and what he does on a daily basis is outstanding work.
“It hurts me now still at this age, and if it didn’t, I wouldn’t still be playing. “I came here for one reason only and it was to play my part in getting this team promoted.
“I know nobody in that dressing room wants to be involved in a relegation battle, given the experience they went through last season.
“On t he ba c k of dropping down from the Premiership, that wasn’t what they wanted.”