GARY Caldwell warned there would be “repercussions” for his Partick Thistle players after the club’s fifth league defeat in a row.
The new manager’s home debut looked set for a 0-0 draw against Ayr United until a goal 13 minutes from time, while credited to defender Michael Rose, is also being claimed by striker Craig Moore.
Former Celtic and Scotland defender Caldwell insisted third-bottom Thistle, now seven points off a play-off spot, require results urgently.
“This club shouldn't be losing matches and we should be higher up this league,” said Caldwell, who recently replaced Alan Archibald as manager.
“We are where we are for a reason and that has to change.
“Players maybe think the manager keeps changing in modern day football – [but] the players will change. If you're falling out of favour with Partick Thistle in the Championship where do you go after that?
“The January window is coming up and I'll find the reason we aren't winning and make changes to make this club better and stronger and fighting up the other end of the table.”
The sharp reminder though came after a performance Caldwell admitted he was “delighted with”, adding that the defeat “must be a mentality issue”.
In a match that was always intriguing but rarely exciting, Ayr had the better of the half-chances, but Thistle would have deserved a much-needed point.
Ayr clinched the win in the space of a dramatic minute.
Firstly, Lawrence Shankland lobbed Thistle goalkeeper Cammy Bell only for the ball to rebound off the top of the crossbar, with Moore’s header then nodded off the line for a corner by Christie Elliott.
From Declan McDaid’s resulting out-swinging delivery, Michael Rose rose highest to thunder a header that Bell could only tip on to the underside of the bar and down – what appeared to be – over the line. Moore bundled home to make sure.
“It looked like it was going to be a 0-0 draw,” admitted second-placed Ayr United’s manager Ian McCall.
“We weren’t clinical, which isn’t like us. Our players will never give up, I wasn’t sure who scored, whether it was Michael or Craig – Moore is saying it’s his.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel