IAN McCALL insists the fan ownership dispute at Firhill will not be a distraction for his players as the Championship side prepare for a SPFL Trust Trophy fixture with Falkirk tomorrow night, with the Jags manager describing the situation as ‘typical Thistle’.
On Tuesday it was announced that the PTFC Trust had received Colin Weir’s 55 per cent stake in the Maryhill club but the news was met with a largely angry response by supporters, who have not been consulted as the club has become ‘fan-owned’.
With his team at the top of the table and with a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final to look forward to, the timing of the off-field drama is not ideal for McCall and his team with the unrest behind the scenes coming after a difficult few years for the club.
“I mean, listen – personally, for me, I know what will happen,” McCall said, speaking as Thistle confirmed an extended two-year partnership with Macklin Motors Nissan Glasgow Central.
“If we lose a couple of games I’ll get absolute dog’s abuse but you know what, if we lose a couple of games I will get dog’s abuse anyway.
“I don’t think it has affected the players, no. I think we’d much rather it wasn’t there in the background to be honest.
“You know, somebody said to me it is typical Thistle on Saturday, losing two late goals but still going top of the league. This feels typical Thistle as well.
“It’s very Thistle like that when we have managed in three years now to get the club [turned around], we’ve always moved it forward.
“It’s been really hard through Covid, through not getting the [Covid relief] money we wanted, through the worst injury crisis in 25 years of management, through demotion. It has been really hard but we have managed through and then this comes and there can’t be the fullness of enjoyment of it.”
Despite it all, McCall hopes that supporters can continue to lend their backing to the team on matchdays.
“What I have noticed is the support at the home games has been brilliant and the crowds are getting bigger,” he said. “For me, that’s great.
“The other stuff… I am a Thistle supporter but I genuinely don’t really know the ins and outs of it and I think supporters would be happy for me to be like that and just really keep concentrating on trying to get the team better.
“[Supporters have backed the team], they absolutely have done. The home games recently have been great, it’s helped how we’ve started almost every game and we have won most of them. I think we have won every game and drawn a couple, so we have scored a lot of goals.
“We had just about 3000 of our own fans there against Cove. Listen, I’d rather we were all singing kumbaya together but hey ho.”
The club board have found themselves criticised by some supporters during the fan ownership dispute but McCall believes that they have done well to carry out their duties during his time at the club.
“Listen, [the criticism] is for less than what it was when I took over I can assure you,” he said. “In the cold light of day it has been hard at the club for the last two, three years for all the things, hard on the supporters, hard on life, and I think the board has steered the ship reasonably well.
“Hopefully I have helped because there has been a lot of bloody hard times. A lot of things in the last three years I have never really encountered. I have never encountered demotion, I have never encountered that money thing, I’ve never encountered that type of injury list, I have never encountered the pitch being as bad as that. It’s been, again, typical Thistle I suppose."
McCall added that his players remain focused on the task at hand and have not discussed the fan ownership dispute in the dressing room.
“No,” he replied when the question was put to him. “The players… listen, no. When you’re at Thistle you need to integrate yourself with the club though because it is a very special club and I think a lot of the players have done that, certainly the players who have been here for a number of months and years.
“But not really – you’ll find that all around Scotland things are happening at different clubs with boards and fans. Players can’t do anything, players are paid to play football and try to win games and show a bit of pride in the jersey and nobody can tell me they haven’t done that.”
Macklin Motors Nissan Glasgow Central is proud sponsor of Partick Thistle FC - www.macklinmotors.co.uk.
