Tuesday 4th September, 2018 at 3:59pm
Following the weekend’s victory over Morton in the Ladbrokes Championship the post-match discussion was dominated, not by Chris Erskine’s sublime 50th minute strike as might have been expected, but by an incident in the 57th minute that has received global coverage on social media.
As far as the Club is concerned, Kris Doolan did everything right and deserves the credit for what would appear to be a perfectly legitimate goal. Following “comprehensive review” of the footage – now at well over 1.5 million impressions across social media – the board quickly decided to award Kris his goal bonus as reward for an excellent strike that should have made it 2-0.
🤔 Over the line? You decide. pic.twitter.com/tG24Xil8Md
— Partick Thistle FC (@PartickThistle) September 1, 2018
On being told of the decision Kris immediately informed the Club that he would donate the cash to the Club’s charity partner – Beatson Cancer Charity – a gesture the Club will recognise by matching Kris’s donation.
Kris said:
“Saturday was absolutely bizarre and having watched it back a few times I still can’t understand what the officials have seen to disallow it. I doubt I’ll score a goal that good again this season but I’ve built a career on hitting the back of the net so I know if I keep working hard and getting into the right positions the goal will come soon enough.
“It isn’t about the money for me and I just want to do everything I can to help the Club get back to the Ladbrokes Premiership. Having not scored so far this season I was desperate to get off the mark and thought I had done that when the ball hit the back of the net on Saturday.
“When Gerry Britton contacted me on Monday morning to tell me the Club was paying my bonus I knew I wanted to give it to charity – the goal wasn’t given after all! The work Beatson Cancer Charity does is absolutely fantastic and I couldn’t think of a better cause to support. Hopefully the next time I hit the net there won’t be so much controversy around it though!”
The Club wrote to the Scottish FA on Tuesday morning to seek an explanation as to why the goal wasn’t awarded and is currently awaiting a response.
Thistle manager, Alan Archibald, said:
“It’s easy for me to talk about it now because we still won the game but a decision of that magnitude could have cost us points. At the end of the day, even though we finished with the victory we had two players booked as a result of the decision, and in a league this tight goal difference could come into play by the time we’re done.
“One of the most disappointing things for me though, is that we have heard nothing from the Scottish FA or the match referee since Saturday. As managers we sit in meetings every season with the association and the referees department where they talk about being open and communicating about decisions and rules but that conversation has to work both ways.
“I seem to remember other managers in the past couple of seasons getting a call to apologise for wrong decisions but I’m not after an apology, I just want an explanation.”
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