Friday 1st October, 2021 at 3:24pm
The last time Partick Thistle and Ayr United played each other in a competitive fixture Ross Docherty was turning out for the Honest Men, this time round the midfielder will be leading the Jags as skipper. The 28-year-old spent five seasons at Somerset Park but will be working against his former club this Saturday as he seeks to help Thistle get back to winning ways after three defeats on the bounce. He spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of this weekend’s cinch Championship match, beginning by reflecting on last Sunday’s defeat to Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park:
“We didn’t really capitalise while we were on top at Raith and we gave away daft goals; two from set pieces and the penalty as well. Any goals from set pieces are avoidable unless it’s a brilliant ball in or a brilliant header so that was disappointing.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think you can give away three goals like we did and expect to come away with anything.”
Although the goals from set pieces proved costly, Ross feels there are other areas of the game Thistle need to focus on improving.
“There are points in the game when we need to be cleverer while we’re on top. Although we concede a couple of goals from corners, as a team we’re dominating large spells of games without getting goals and ultimately results which isn’t good obviously.”
The Jags had a couple of strong penalty appeals waved away in the second half with the score at 1-0 and Docherty gave us his view on the incidents.
“At the time, I knew the handball had hit his hand; whether it was a penalty, I wasn’t sure, but watching it back I think it’s a stonewaller. And then the one from the throw-in, I go short and he’s clipped my heels – it looks like he’s just pushed me but he’s clipped my heels as well so it was frustrating not to get either of those but that’s football sometimes.”
The Maryhill men now need to try to get out of a three-game losing slump and, as captain, Ross knows he plays a key role in making sure the squad get back to winning ways soon.
“I try to reinforce in everyone’s heads that we’re not a bad team. I look at the games we’ve lost and it’s been bad goals that we’ve given away more than it’s been teams dominating us for 90 minutes.
“We’re actually dominating quite a lot of these games and we’ve still scored a few goals so we don’t feel like we’re that far off we just need to do better in the key moments and I try to reiterate that to the boys to try to keep positive and to maintain that belief that the wins will come for us.”
Now, up against an Ayr side who have improved their form in recent weeks, Docherty knows the Jags will have to be at their best to get all three points.
“Every game’s tough in this league as everyone keeps saying and this one is no different. They’ve picked up a bit recently since they’ve changed manager while our form’s gone the other way so we know it won’t be easy.
“I think we know ourselves though that if we can play to our best and cut out the silly little errors that have cost us in recent weeks then we give ourselves a good chance of winning the match.”
Exclusive video interviews with Shea Gordon and Thistle assistant manager Neil Scally will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Kilmarnock, starting at 2:30pm – click here to tune in.
There will also be a pay-per-view option, priced at £12, for any supporter who wishes to watch our live stream of the match – click here for more info.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
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