In the latest in the Scottish FA's Spotlight series, Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan reflects on 18 months in charge of the Maryhill club.
The Jags reached the play-offs in the past two seasons under Doolan, falling just short in their quest for promotion on both occasions.
In a hugely competitive Championship this season, Saturday's late victory over Dunfermline moved Thistle back into the play-off spots.
Doolan also discussed his coaching journey and his early impressions of the UEFA Pro Licence, which he began completing in the summer with the Scottish FA Coach Education Department.
You have to be ready. That would be my advice for any ex-player or potential manager, because football changes so fast.
Under-18s and first teams are two opposite ends of the spectrum and but that was the extent of the jump I made in February of 2023. I was thrown in the deep end - especially as I had only starting coaching the Under-18s the month before. But being someone who constantly presses my players to back themselves, I knew that I would be going against my own advice if I didn't take the step.
It’s about being prepared and believing that the experiences that you've had mean you're good enough to pass things onto other players. It's about using the communication skills that you’ve picked up along the way and seeing if you can actually manage people. In my opinion, if you’re confident in what you’re doing, the sky is the limit.
I wouldn't say I've gone the normal route to management - if such a thing exists, but I wouldn't change it. When I went part-time with Arbroath I decided to open my football academy which was something I had in mind for a while. I wanted to have my own business and do something my own way and and it developed really quickly. You have to be prepared to work hard when you work for yourself. I didn't have many staff at first but then I started bringing in more coaches and began learning more about the financial side of the business, with the help of my wife who work in accountancy.
A year or so after I’d opened the company I received an offer from James Grady, Head Coach of Grange (one of the Scottish FA JD Performance Schools), to come in and coach there. I knew about the schools but I didn’t realise how good the programme is until I went in. The day-to-day coaching with James improved my skills immensely because it was so hands-on. You were relied upon to put on sessions for top young players who demanded a high standard and wanted to improve themselves every day.
Looking back at those two different experiences, both played a part in my development ahead of moving into management. I look back now at my own academy when I was managing coaches, managing finances and think – that’s the job of a manager. Also by working with grassroots players within my academy and the best young players in the school, I got a good blend of experience and I got hundreds of hours of coaching out on the pitch. The habits we instilled into players in the school and in my academy are things that I still mention regularly to my players today.
Looking back on the past 18 months at Thistle, it's been far from smooth sailing, but there's a pride in what we've achieved. When we go back to the Ross County game (when we lost on penalties), it’s obviously heartbreaking and everybody goes through the turmoil of that but the way we came out of that and galvanised things really quickly pleased me.
In football, you can’t dwell on things and you can’t feel sorry for yourself. You get up and you dust yourself off as quickly as possible, so that’s what I did. During that summer, I literally got straight onto recruitment and getting us ready for the next season. The easy option would have been to continually look back towards the disappointment but we tried to learn - like we do every day – and we put together another strong season. We made the play-offs, we reached the semi-finals and it was only penalties that stopped us getting back in the final again. So I’m really proud of everyone for their hard work.
You don’t come into this job as a manager and not want to learn, and I view my time on the Pro Licence the same way. It's a varied group where you’ve got managers (both from the male and female game), you’ve got coaches, you’ve got those who work upstairs within football clubs and you’ve got coaches within the women’s game and some from abroad too. That’s testament to the Scottish FA Coach Education staff, who have put together a diverse group and one that I’m sure will continue to generate lots of engagement and be a brilliant learning environment.
You get really good input from people from different walks of life. It’s exciting in that regard. The days that we've met up so far have given me an insight into how good the course is going to be. It’s already quite a tight-knit group as lots of us have played against each other or have managed against each other. It was straight to work when we first met up at the start of the summer, so that showed everybody that you’ve got to be prepared to work hard but you’re there to enjoy the fact it’s a learning environment. It's also great for me to have people like David Gray, Don Cowie and Scott Brown, who are young managers in a similar position to myself. Although we may be rivals on a Saturday, we are in the same boat in terms of our career and those guys have all been great sounding boards.
The game always changes and you need to keep moving with it and the course, and the discussions that come with it, has helped me stay on top of the latest trends. I think about this in two ways: firstly with the players I have, I’m always thinking ‘how can I make them better?’ and secondly, I want to keep looking further afield with my recruitment, and hopefully with both of these aspects, we can aim to finish higher in the league than we did previously. For me, it’s always about that daily improvement and also that improvement, year on year.
We can see from how this season’s started that it’s going to be a competitive league. We recruited early this year and the guys who have come in I believe have enhanced the squad because they’re top professionals and they want to get back to the Premiership.
I always want my team to be a team that takes care of the ball all over the pitch, from the goalkeeper to the striker. We don’t flick things away, we don’t show off, we try and secure the ball and take care of it, and this is the profile of players we look for. And if we lose the ball, our habits ensure we always have a reaction to try and get it back. When we work on our patterns of play going forward, everyone knows their job, but at the back of our heads there’s always that thought of ‘if we lose the ball, everyone reacts – not just one or two’.
If you look at the team over the last couple of years, we’re a team that always scores a lot of goals and we’re frustrated that we’ve not been able to do that as much as we would have liked so far this season. But I think looking at a few of the recent victories over Queen’s Park and Dunfermline, we’ve started to see the things that we’ve been good at over the past few seasons and we’re now just looking to produce these performances on a more consistent basis as we strive to move up the table.
