Kris Doolan vows free-scoring Partick will attack Premiership play-off final

Posted Saturday, May 27, 2023 by PA

Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan declared they would attack the cinch Premiership play-off final with the same mentality that has seen them score 16 goals in four games.

The Jags set up a two-legged final against Kilmarnock or Ross County with a 5-0 semi-final second-leg victory over 10-man Ayr at Somerset Park.

Looking ahead to next Thursday’s first leg, Doolan said: “They are Premiership sides for a reason but we have a one-track mentality, we want to go up.

“We haven’t limped into the play-offs, we have not sat back and absorbed pressure, we have been the team in the ascendancy. That won’t change in the final.”

A double from Scott Tiffoney and goals from Jack McMillan, Steven Lawless and Kevin Holt completed an 8-0 aggregate victory.

Doolan said: “It’s a statement of what we’re capable of. To score five goals in a play-off game under the pressure that comes was brilliant to watch.

“We’ve got stronger as these games have gone on and we spoke about that.

“I’ve been on the other side of it as a Premiership side when you’re used to losing games and you come up against a Championship side who are used to winning. We’ve built a winning environment here.

“We will rest up and be ready for the next challenge ahead and come into it confident.”

Ayr’s top goalscorer Dipo Akinyemi was sent off in the 25th minute after lashing out at Aaron Muirhead and appearing to catch the defender’s chin with his forearm.

“I’ve not seen it so I am being careful not to comment on it but I felt there was a foul on him prior to that and he has reacted,” said Ayr manager Lee Bullen, who bemoaned defensive errors over the two legs.

“But you can’t react and you can’t lift your hands. By the letter of the law he probably does go but if he gets the foul in the first place he maybe doesn’t raise his hands.”

Meanwhile, Bullen was in the dark over rumours that Dundee had approached Ayr for permission to speak to him over their vacant managerial position.

“I have not heard a dickie bird,” he said.

“Nothing at all, absolutely nothing at all. I have got a job to do at Ayr, we are still in the early parts of that, building a story at Ayr United and I have genuinely not heard a thing from Dundee at all.”