Kris Doolan By T J R

[BowenBoys]

This month The Jukebox Rebel gave us Who Put The Ball In The Rangers Net?, twenty-five glorious tributes to Thistle goal scorers. It is my personal favourite topic this year. It reminded me that, earlier this year, TJR had written a biography of Kris Doolan for the forum's trophy presentation to mark the achievement of one hundred goals for the club. The biography was framed and presented to Kris along with the WAT trophy. Kris was so delighted with it that he tracked down and 'phoned TJR to thank him.

 

Those who took part in the fundraising will have their own copy and some were sold after to boost the funds but most people will not have had the chance to read it. Now, as the year ends, I think it is time to publish it for all the good folk of WAT to enjoy.

 

It's worth noting that TJR turned down a personal credit for writing the piece, preferring instead that it came from the forum community as a whole. I'm very grateful to him for writing this on our behalf.

 

I wish you all a very happy new year.

 

 

edited to add correct text (not draft version as earlier). Apologies TJR.

 

 

 

“Kris played with Talbot Boys Club from an early age along with my son and you could see then he was a considerable talent. We used to joke that when Kris got the ball the rest of the kids could shoot off for an ice cream. It was normal for him to score four or more goals in a game and some games he was taken off so not to disrespect the other team. The main thing that struck me was his attitude because although a great wee player he never let it go to his head and was one of the most polite and well-mannered boys in the team.”

 

Kris, you’ll maybe recognise those words as belonging to a good Auchinleck committee man, Jim McAuley, most of which is as true today as it was then, albeit the defenders got a little tougher in your later life!

 

An early starter, you become a boy amongst men at the age of 15, when you are introduced to the set-up of the Ayrshire District League as a Kello Rovers player. Suitably hardened, you inevitably sign with your hometown team 4 years later, and make your Auchinleck Talbot debut in a pre-season tour of Northern Ireland in the summer of 2007. During your spell at Beechwood, you’re capped for Junior Scotland three times in the Quadrangular Tournament in the Isle of Man, and score for your country against Northern Ireland in a 4-3 win, en route to a winners’ medal.

 

With Talbot gunning for the Scottish Cup in season 2008-09, auld Bobby Dinnie picks up on your talents; you are gaining plaudits with every passing month, and, heeding the advice of our veteran scout, Ian McCall moves quickly to ensure that it will be Partick Thistle who will provide the platform for the next stage of your development.

 

You sign for Thistle as a 22-year-old in January 2009 and, in no time at all, you’re on the team bus with Simon Donnelly, Mark Roberts et al, heading for Inverness, and a 4th Round Scottish Cup tie. You make your senior debut, replacing Kevin McKinlay with 15 minutes to go, and Thistle 3 down. It isn’t a day to remember for the club, but it’s a big moment in your career thus far.

 

Just two weeks later, you score your first goal for the club, determinedly heading in an 18th minute equaliser in a fiercely contested 2-2 draw away to Queen of the South in the First Division, and the away section at Palmerston echoes to chants of “Doo-lan Doo-lan”, which must be music to your ears at this early stage. This is quickly followed by Firhill goals against Dunfermline and Morton, the latter of which seals a 1-0 win and moves Thistle up to 2nd in the League table. You receive the man-of-the-match award on the day, and a suitably impressed Ian McCall moves to improve your personal terms. You seem to be dealing easily with the step up to senior level, as testified by 5 goals in your first 9 games. You miss out on a winners’ medal in the springtime, as your Talbot mates win the Scottish Cup without you, but hindsight tells us you made the right choice in coming to Thistle, and this was a price worth paying.

 

Season 2009-10 goes down as your least profitable in terms of goals, with competition for places and a loan spell at Clyde halting momentum in that department. You’ll remember, however, your one-and-only overhead kick goal. At Starks Park in September, with seven minutes remaining, this salvages a point for the ten men. Passions run high; kisses and cuddles from over the barrier in the aftermath, hint at a love affair set to blossom. Your return home to Firhill is capped in May with a sublime last-minute winner from the edge-of-thebox against Queen of the South, yes, that team again.

 

If the previous term had been frustrating, 2010-11 was the season where you truly made your mark in the senior grade, netting 18 times in competitive action, and finishing as joint-top scorer in the Division. There is a headed brace against Ayr in the Challenge Cup, and further doubles against Stirling Albion both at Forthbank and at Firhill. Of course, these were the good old days when Thistle used to get penalties, and three of them helped to boost your tally this season. Once again, your most inspired moments come against Queen of the South – have you got something against them or what? In February, with an amazing back heel flick over your own head, you set yourself up to slot home a beauty which puts Thistle 2 nil up at Palmerston. Later in the game, you can only watch from the bench in disbelief as a 3-1 lead turns into a 3-3 draw. With Thistle’s promotion challenge having faded early, only 1,001 hardy souls bear witness to a Van-Persie-esque humdinger against the Doonhamers in March. You keep your eyes fixed on a long diagonal ball from Paul Paton and, from wide on the edge of the box, you connect beautifully with a lobbed volley, which no goalkeeper on this earth could have saved. The goal, and the 3-1 win, fairly reward the hardcore support on the night.

 

You’ve never been noted for goals from outside the box – there have only been a handful in your time at Firhill – but your 2011-12 account opens with a 22-yarder at Falkirk Stadium, alas in a 1-2 defeat. Under new gaffer, Jackie McNamara, the team flatter to deceive this term, but you finish as our top League scorer again, with 13 goals credited to your account. By March, we are starting to witness improvements to your technique, and the Doolan trademark swivel-and-shoot goal is in full effect in a 2-0 Firhill win over Hamilton and a 5-0 win at Palmerston. At this point, there’s a real sense that things are looking up for the club.

 

In the swashbuckling season which follows, Thistle register 96 competitive goals – the highest total since 100 goals were gained in 1970-71. You’ve never had so much competition for top scorer and 60 goals are shared between Chris Erskine (16), yourself (15), Steven Lawless (15) and Steven Craig (14). Both of your feet deliver goals in the season opener, the first of which is scored in front of the shed boys in their new North Stand habitat. The 3-1 win over fancied Falkirk sets the tone for the season to come. Once again, we can see improvements in your technique; notably there’s a beautifully controlled header in a 3-0 win at home to Dumbarton in August, and a sublime chest and volley in a 6-1 Firhill win over Livingston – your first goal under new gaffer, Alan Archibald. A great run to the Challenge Cup final ends in penalty shoot-out heartbreak, but not before a moment which will live long in the memory for all Jagskind, namely your 122nd minute equaliser at the back-post which sends 6,000 Thistle fans wild with delight. Your passionate celebration leads to a yellow card – worth it every time in the circumstances. The bittersweet Almondvale experience is soon put behind you (and us), as the First Division title is secured, and you receive a winners’ medal, a huge reward for all of your hard work thus far.

 

In your career, nothing has phased you. You stepped up as a mere schoolboy at Kello, raised a level at Auchinleck, and did so again with Partick Thistle. Now, aged 26, you take to Scotland’s premier footballing stage, as Thistle take their place as inaugural members of the new SPFL Premiership. In Dingwall, you score Thistle’s first goal in the Premiership, which paves the way for an impressive team display and a 3-1 win. As if echoing your own personal performances, Thistle look right at home in the top-flight, and your 11 goals go some way to securing safety. It’s a season filled with many specials. Your goal in the Highlands is followed by a goal in Perth from the tightest of angles which helps to secure a good point. In October, a superbly worked team-effort is finished by your now trademark ‘touch, move and shoot’ as an excellent 2-1 win at Inverness is secured. Your ever-building credentials for “legend” status are unharmed with an equaliser against Celtic at Firhill, and the celebrations with the displaced shed boys in the excellent main stand are up there with the highest moments of passion in your Thistle career. Thistle’s 6,000th League goal is scored at Easter Road, and your Messi-esque wonder-goal is surely one of the best since our first Scottish Football League goal in 1893! A stoppage time equaliser in Perth in March leaves a warm glow, as does a glorious effort in a 1-1 April draw with St Mirren, where Kallum Higginbotham’s cross with the outside of the boot is met by your outstretched neck and head for a wonderful cross-goal finish.

 

By season 2014-15, stattos are double-checking historical records, and your rise up the all-time scoring charts is now being tracked, goal by goal. In December 2014, you’re in action just a day after becoming a father, and your first goal as Daddy comes just 2 weeks later in a battling 2-2 draw with Dundee United at Firhill. Sitting on top of the world, just 2 weeks later again you make headlines all over Scotland by scoring four times in a 5-0 rout of Hamilton Accies, becoming the first player to ever score 4 goals in one match in Scotland's Premiership. You’ve been on the verge with 10 braces ‘til now, so it’s great to finally bag your first senior hat-trick, and for good measure your versatility is underlined with a volley, a shot, a back heel and a header. By season’s end, you are in double-figures for the fifth successive campaign, and sit just outside the all-time Top 20 competitive scorers’ chart.

 

2015-16 is bountiful for you, with another 14 competitive goals added to your account. In December, a wonderfully placed shot at Tannadice separates the sides, as Thistle register their first competitive victory in the away strip since the 2-1 triumph at home to Cove Rangers 3 years, 1 month and 9 days earlier. You certainly played your part in this very strange hoodoo by scoring in both – in purple and in white! In April, at Firhill, it’s a repeat subscription for Dundee United as your goal secures another 3 precious points and a 1-0 win. Now on 84 goals in all competitions, you move ahead of Dougie Somner in that all-time table, and now sit at 14th. This is very significant, as many regard Somner as the greatest Thistle striker of “modern” times. With goals against Dundee, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Kilmarnock, Dundee United and Hamilton Academical, you become the first player in Scottish football ever to score in all 5 post-split games, and you become the first Jag since Joe McBride in 1961 to go 5- in-a-row in top-flight action. For the third consecutive season, you finish in the SPFL Premiership Top 10 scorers, and are only one of two men to have done so. Completing a wonderful round of stats highlights, you finish as Partick Thistle's outright top League scorer for the 5th time, and become the first man in history to do so.

 

After scoring the winner at Airdrie in the opening game of the 2016-17 season, you break a barren 3-month spell by scoring in a 2-0 win at Dens Park in October. In fact, 2 wins are recorded in Tayside in the space of 4 days, and your goal in the 2-1 win at McDiarmid Park is officially recorded by the SPFL’s low flying headers department at 1.2 inches from the ground. With your League goals tally now sitting at 83, you’re now Thistle’s third highest scorer in that category, just 7 behind Willie Sharp. However, to truly be accepted as a legendary Partick Thistle striker, it’s imperative that you score against both Celtic and Rangers, and you duly complete the double at the very first time of asking, putting Thistle one up against Rangers at Firhill, with just 14 minutes remaining. Alas, a 94th minute winner for the visitors takes the shine off. After the new-fangled winterbreak, two superbly placed headers secure a valuable 3 points against Hamilton – your seventh and eighth goals against them. Mention must be made of the special relationship with one Christopher Erskine, who provides an exquisitely stabbed-cross for the opener. The second lifts your competitive goals total to 97, and your place in the all-time Top 10 for that category is duly secured. Further goals against Hearts (a 2-0 Firhill win) and Inverness (a 1-1 Firhill draw) take you to within one strike of the much talked about 100 figure – but more importantly, the team are riding high, occupying a Top 6 position in Scottish football for the whole of March.

 

To nationwide headlines of “April Dools Day”, the 100th and 101st competitive goals are secured on the 1st April 2017, via a storyline which seems to have been written by the creator of Roy of the Rovers. Victory in the Firhill clash with Ross County could go a long way to securing a coveted Top Six finish for the club, but the start is sluggish and team captain Abdul Osman is lost to injury in the 45th minute. As second in command, you take that armband for the second half, and, with Thistle trailing 0-1 to a stuffy opponent, some magic is required; that’s exactly what transpires, as you lead the troops from the front. An exquisite back-heel flick from big Liam Lindsay lands nicely in your path, and your touch-andturn leaves defenders sprawling, as you fire home your 100th goal in typical Doolan fashion, culminating in a deadly left-foot strike from 12 yards. As was the case at Almondvale back in 2013, a trivial yellow card cannot dampen the sheer jubilation, as Firhill reverberates to the sound of the now legendary “Doo-lan” chant. By amazing co-incidence, this goal sees you overtake Willie Sharp as Thistle’s all-time leading marksman in official League action. Your celebratory “100 goals and counting” t.shirt talks-the-talk, and just 15 minutes later you walk-the-walk with your 101st, as a beautiful bit of interplay between yourself and Adam Barton ends with a clinically taken match-winner. It’s a day that will live long in the memory for every Thistle fan. What a script!

 

As the first Jag in over 50 years to reach such a goals tally, you’re naturally highly regarded by all at Firhill, but your exemplary level of professionalism ensures that the respect runs deeper still, especially in regards to your fantastic head-up-and-focused attitude in the face of being involved in well over 200 substitutions, more than any other player in Thistle’s history. Willie Sharp, Thistle’s all-time highest scorer, netted once every 223 minutes in competitive action. At close of play after your 101st, your ratio is one every 189 minutes. Who knows where you’d be with more game-time!?

 

This recognition extends to off-the-park activities, as one of our forum members typically recalled:

“during the signings in the JHS concourse when it started to get very crowded round the table he was sitting at, seeing my daughter (Norwegian and not used to crowds) was panicking a bit with the pushing, stepped forward and brought my daughter behind the desk to sit with him, talked to her till she stopped being scared with the crowd. That made her day, and made her a Jags fan, and she still has the picture of the two of them on her wall, and his autograph next to it.”

 

Kris Doolan, this is your Partick Thistle life (so far).

 

For Thistle fans, there’s been no finer sight in the last 9 seasons than seeing you run towards us with your arms outstretched at a quarter to three, leaving us happy at 4.45.

 

May these scenes repeat for many more years to come – one hundred goals and counting indeed!

 

WeAreThistle fans forum

Edited December 31, 2017 by BowenBoys

[sandy]

Makes for excellent reading again BowenBoys and TJR.

 

Dools is such a humble, grounded footballer. A genuinely nice guy. We are lucky to have had his years of service in Red & Yellow.

[King Kenny]

Excellent read and coupled with yesterday, a nice way to finish off the year.

 

Doolan deserves all the plaudits he gets and more, he’s right up there with my all time favourite Jags players.

[alx]

Brilliant article. Doolan isn't even close to retiring as well.

[Auld Jag]

We are lucky to have such a good professional as Kris Doolan who clearly enjoys playing for Thistle.We are also lucky to have BowenBoys as a supporter as he has done a lot to raise money for the club.Also thanks to TJR for the work that he does with all the stats.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Auld Jag

[Jaggernaut]

Great first read for the New Year!

 

Here's hoping that the Doolmeister can hit double figures again this season.

[BowenBoys]

We are lucky to have such a good professional as Kris Doolan who clearly enjoys playing for Thistle.We are also lucky to have BowenBoys as a supporter as he has done a lot to raise money for the club.Also thanks to TJR for the work that he does with all the stats.

 

Big thanks to elevenone too. Doing a great job raising funds in a difficult season. If elevenone gets any new sponsorship going in the new year let's get them snapped up quickly. He's doing it for the club we love.

[ChewinGumMacaroonBaaaz]

 

Splendid TJR.

 

He's not a legend...

 

He's a bona fide living hero!

 

[ChewinGumMacaroonBaaaz]

 

 

Hit, after hit, after hit, after hit..... Here's to his greatest yet to come!

 

 

 

[The Jukebox Rebel]

Queen of the South next up, a great chance for Dools to go double figures solely against the Doonhamers.

[marcia blaine]

Absolutely loved that, especially the signing anecdote at the end. Thanks for sharing it.

[PaleGreySky]

I see that Doolan is now creeping his way up the all time scorers charts. It's quite possible for him to be our third top goalscorer of all time , with a outside chance of second top, by the time he finishes.

 

Willie Sharp 229 1939–1957

Willie Paul 186 1884–1899

George Smith 125 1953–1964

Jimmy Walker 121 1946–1957

Johnny Torbet 116 1924–1933

Kris Doolan 106 2009–

Willie Newall 101 1938–1945

Dougie Somner 101 1974–1979

Davie Ness 97 1923–1935

Edited January 2, 2018 by PaleGreySky

[BowenBoys]

I think Dools is now on 110.

 

I'm sure that as soon as the dust settled on his 100th goal achievement, George Smith was the next target he set himself. Our top three goalscorers will then span three centuries.

[douglas clark]

I may have said this elsewhere on the forum, but Dools comes across as a good communicator and is doing his badges. I'd quite like it if, after the end of the Archibald era, y'know decades hence, that Kris Doolan would be considered as our new manager? For there have been only a few folk that loyal to the club. Apart from that, he seems to know what he is talking about.

 

Thoughts?

[The Jukebox Rebel]

Said a few years ago that Doolan was beginning to speak like a manager, and I see those badges as a long term investment for him. Can certainly see him taking the Development squad as a taster to see how it goes.

 

Meantime, I very much hope he's looking to Kenny Miller as a role model for what can be achieved as a player if you keep yourself in shape physically and mentally in your 30s.

[douglas clark]

TJR,

 

Good points.Perhaps the route to the top position in any club should be via the guy that develops our younger players, not through external appointee's? Assuming they are any good, obviously. I quite like the guy, forgotten his name, that manages our under 20's crop of players. (Interviews on Jags Zone, etc.) He, too, seems to have his head screwed on.

 

Incidentally, George Smith must be within his target range?

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I can't mind Davie McParland scoring a hat-trick but a lot of his career was before I started going to games. Just a wild guess but at the same time using a bit of logic given the number of games Davie played. He chipped in with plenty goals tho' but playing in positions scoring 3 goals in a game would've been very unusual.

 

Oops! wrong thread!

Edited January 8, 2018 by lady-isobel-barnett

[The Jukebox Rebel]

TJR,

 

Good points.Perhaps the route to the top position in any club should be via the guy that develops our younger players, not through external appointee's? Assuming they are any good, obviously. I quite like the guy, forgotten his name, that manages our under 20's crop of players. (Interviews on Jags Zone, etc.) He, too, seems to have his head screwed on.

 

Incidentally, George Smith must be within his target range?

Scott 'bad goal to lose' McKenzie!

 

From within can be hit or a miss, Archie was starting to take charge of second string games (before he was so rudely interrupted) and ex-player Davie McParland cut his teeth as an assistant for a season and a half. But then, Gerry & Derek didn't find it so easy. It's a tough one for legends as they don't want to damage their reputations, but Doolan has the self belief and I think he'd take the challenge.

 

Re Doolan on the goals trail, if he looks after himself I can see him comfortably rising to third in our All Games chart and second in our Competitive goals chart. Also, 100 League goals are tantalisingly within reach...

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by The Jukebox Rebel

[allyo]

First Thistle player ever to score 100 league goals would be a real milestone.

[Barney Rubble]

What a heartwarming thread!!

 

Been off the forum so far this year due to being home for the hollybags, so reading this in Vienna Airport this morning was a real lift.

 

Thanks to Bowen Boys for posting, to TJR for his wonderful prose, and of course to Kris Doolan for well......being Kris Doolan.

 

A very Happy New Year to all Jags wherever you may be on this earth.

[elevenone]

And 9 years to the day since Dools signed. I bet there wasn't too many of us jumping through hoops at the news at the time. How we got proved wrong. Here's to the next 9 years at Thistle Kris.

[Paddy Thistle]

I'm sure there are some other gems to be discovered in the Juniors unfortunatley being the SPFL , you would never get a change to try and blood them unless it was sending them out on loan