OUT of adversity comes opportunity for Danny Mullen. Not that the adversity was his, really, but a changing of the guard in Glasgow’s West End appears to have given him a new lease of life at last.
With just his third goal of the season, the striker delivered the perfect response to the most difficult of weeks for Partick Thistle, which saw manager Ian McCall dismissed and the board admit the club is currently steering through some choppy financial waters.
That sacking of McCall - announced in the wake of an impressive, if ultimately fruitless, display at Ibrox - came as much of a shock to the Thistle squad as it did the Firhill punters, but if a silver lining is to be found it’s the chance it’s presented to players like Mullen.
“It wasn’t nice to see anybody losing their job,” Mullen, whose goal gave Thistle a 1-0 win over Ayr United, said. “But it is a fresh start. Dools [caretaker boss, Kris Doolan] has come in and the training has been good; there’s been a good tempo to it. He has us believing we can climb the table.
“It’s good while he’s here and we’ll see what’s happening going forward.
“In this league, it’s tough. If you get a few wins in a row, it can build momentum. Going into the end of the season, it’s a good time to hit a run of form. Hopefully, we can start that now.”
While none of the Thistle players have explicitly said whether or not they agreed with McCall’s dismissal, it was pretty telling that Aaron Muirhead - when speaking to the club’s in-house media - dedicated the win over Ayr United to his former boss and coaching team.
When asked how Thistle can now build on this and get back into the play-off spots, Mullen said: “It has to be the same performance defensively. We’ll look to create as many chances as we can.
“Personally, I am glad I scored. It shows I want to be in his plans for however long he is here.”
Meanwhile, Nick McAllister admitted Ayr’s players were gutted after they failed to make the most of title rivals Dundee and Queen’s Park dropping points on the eve of their own 1-0 loss.
“Before the game, we were talking that it was a right good chance to get back in there,” he said. “This league is all over the place and you can win and be up, or lose and be back down to fifth.”
