Airdrie chief blasts back at coach’s ‘mad Vlad’ claim
TALKING PARTICK THISTLE
AAIRDRIE chairman Jim Ballantyne has hit back at sacked head-coach Willie Aitchison after being branded ‘ worse’ than Vladimir Romanov.
Aitchison, who was only in the post two weeks and was working for free, was shown the door by the Diamonds in the wake of Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Albion Rovers following a disagreement over bringing in a coach weekend.
Despite being told by the club that there was not enough time to register an unnamed coach on Friday, Ballantyne claims Aitchison choose to ignore the club’s orders.
Aitchison, who worked under Csaba Laszlo at Hearts during controversial owner Romanov’s regime, then criticised Ballantyne yesterday, saying: “I worked under Vladimir Romanov and he
“We addressed that in training this morning, that we have to concentrate on ourselves a bit more rather than the opposition, and that comes from everyone.
“It’s still early stages and we have played some tough games in the league, but it’s just disappointing because everyone knows how St Johnstone are going to play.
“Nobody is going to beat them at their own game, and I thought that is for the is always thought of as the worst person in Scottish football but this is worse.”
Airdrie chairman Ballantyne, however, has responded in a statement released on the club’s website.
He said: “For those who may have read the views of a disgruntled ex-coach in a newspaper today, it is important that I put the record straight.
“The board was contacted very late on Friday regarding a new coach to be what we tried to do on Saturday without knowing it. “Watching the game back, we tried to do what they do best, and obviously they were better at it than us. So, we learn from it, and we’ve got to start taking our game onto other people. “Being at home on Saturday to Aberdeen, we have to try and play our game, which is getting the ball down and passing and moving. “If we can get back to that, then we’ll give ourselves a really good chance.” Barton isn’t getting too con - cerned about Thistle’s inability to register a point from their first three
Hregistered for the game on Saturday. There was insufficient time for the club to properly vet the coach and then register him with the football authorities as required by SFA rules.
“The board has a duty of care regarding who publicly represents the club, and as such, Aitchison was advised that the coach in question could not be involved in the game the next day.
“Despite that specific instruction, he chose to games, with the Jags overcoming a similarly slow start last season to grab a top-six place. E SAID: “The good thing is that we’ve been in this position before and come out of it, and we went on to have the best season that Thistle have had for many years.
“That’s the one thing we can hold onto even if it doesn’t go well in the next couple of weeks.
“We can keep believing in ourselves and keep doing what we believe in, and things will get better as they did last season.
“We’re not going into games thinking we are going to get beat, even with the tough games coming up against Rangers, Hearts and Aberdeen.
They are winnable games, and we will be going into them looking for the three points.”
Barton knows though that confidence within the Thistle involve not one, but two unregistered coaches. this was disrespectful to everybody at the club and could not be tolerated.
“Trying to misrepresent the position to a newspaper does not change the facts.
“The club has come a long way in a very short period of time due to the hard work put in by everyone including fans, sponsors, players and staff and I will not allow that good work to be undermined by any individual.” ranks may be affected if they don’t get a win on the board soon, and he concedes that a lack of belief in the team is not conducive to him producing his own best form.
“It does affect you,” he said. “A big part of football is your mindset, and the longer we go without getting a point on the board, the more chance there is of us going into games rushing things, forcing things and trying to make things happen that aren’t on.
“If you are winning games then everyone is confident, people around you are playing well and it makes your job easier as well.
“I think the main focus for me at the minute is for the team to get some points on the board and get some confidence flowing.
“Once that happens and confidence is flowing throughout the team and certain individuals, I’ll hopefully get back to the form I showed last year and even better.”