CHRIS ERSKINE accepts that Partick Thistle’s inability to hold on to a lead will prolong their residence in the lower reaches of the Ladbrokes Premiership but insists there is no need to panic yet.
With eight minutes remaining on Saturday they were on their way to a victory that would have hauled them up to eighth, but succumbed when Eamonn Brophy raced through to score the equaliser.
It is a familiar story for weary Thistle supporters. They have regularly watched their side become nervous wrecks in the final moments of matches.
“We seem to have this problem of losing late goals and not being able to hold on,” said Erskine. “We made a good start to this season with the League Cup results and our first league game when we beat Inverness. But we just seem to be doing the same things – we are not killing teams off.
“I had a wee chance right at the start of the second half and Kris Doolan had a chance as well. So we could have killed the game off instead of allowing Hamilton back into it. Having said that I think Ryan Scully kept us in it in the first half because we could have been a couple of goals down before we even got started.
“We saw the Hamilton game as a big chance to get out of that winless run but unfortunately we conceded a late goal. “Until we start defending better as a team we are not going to do well. It’s very early to be worrying but we need to get out of the situation where we are losing goals and not winning games.”
Hamilton have the same complaint. They could have been two or three ahead in the early moments of the match and then contrived to concede two very bad goals.
Massimo Donati headed them in front in 14 minutes, but he was culpable in 21 minutes when he and Georgios Sarris failed to clear Erskine’s cross and Ryan Edwards had a tap-in.
There was further ineptitude at the back when Liam Lindsay was left unmarked in 43 minutes to head Abdul Osman’s cross past Gary Woods.
However, there is great resilience about Hamilton and they deserved their late leveller.
Midfield Dougie Imrie said: “The character of the boys to keep going and get the point shows we have a good team spirit here.
“I feel we deserved a point because we created numerous opportunities. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s yet another game in which we have taken the lead and not go on to win. That’s eight out of nine. Motherwell is the only match this season when we have not gone in front.
“Normally in this league the team that goes in front goes on to win the game. So it’s really disappointing for us. If we had taken our opportunities in these matches then we would be much higher up the league. It’s another two points dropped.”
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