Adam Barton had his first taste of Scottish football on Saturday against Motherwell, and unfortunately for him, it was also his first experience of disappointment in a Partick Thistle jersey.
Not because of his performance, or that of his teammates who dominated the game against the Steelmen, but because they never made the most of the chances that they created.
That allowed Scott McDonald to pop up with seven minutes remaining to cancel out a first-half goal from Thistle’s Chris Erskine, a result that keeps the Firhill side bottom of the league.
Barton has seen enough of his new side to be assured though that they will soon start to climb the table if they can maintain their level of performance.
“I really enjoyed it, but I was very frustrated after the final whistle,” Barton said.
“I thought we had enough chances to go and win by three or four and then that goal at the end wouldn’t have really mattered.
“That’s football though and that’s what we’ve got to deal with.
“The good thing is that we are creating the chances, we’re getting in the right positions and we’re playing well. We’re just not coming away with the right result, and sometimes you would rather play bad and come away with a good result.
“We’ve got to take the positives from the game and stay positive as a team going into Monday in training.
“We’re creating enough chances to score three, four or five goals, and we’ve got to take them eventually.
“When we do, that will be the kick-start for us and we’ll go on to do really well.
“Every team-talk is that we’ve done well and that we’re just not getting the right result, and we can’t really put our finger on just what it is at the moment.
“We need to keep being positive. We can’t go into a negative mind-set and think ‘we’re not winning, we’re not winning.’
“That will just get us down and we’ll stay on this run, but if we keep believing in ourselves and keep trying to do what we’re doing, then it should go our way.”
Barton was impressive as he made his bow for Thistle, and he displayed a selflessness after the game which was also apparent in his assured performance in front of the back four.
The main offender in terms of blowing chances to bury Motherwell was forward Ade Azeez, who was clean through on three occasions when Thistle led without troubling ‘Well keeper Craig Samson.
His fellow new arrival at the club though had some encouraging words for the misfiring striker.
“He’s done brilliant to get into the positions and make the runs and do what he had to do, it’s just not clicking for him at the moment,” said Barton.
“His confidence is probably a bit low, but as teammates we’ve got to be behind him.
“We can’t be negative, we’ve got to be positive towards him and keep him up for the next game.”
There has been speculation over where the versatile Barton will be deployed by his manager Alan Archibald, with the player comfortable in midfield and defence.
The absence of Abdul Osman meant that Barton was played in a deep-lying midfield position at the weekend, but he is happy to do whatever job is asked of him.
He said: “I’ve grown up in centre-mid so I like to get myself forward and be a bit creative, but the gaffer likes to have the two holding midfielders, and I’ve played that position for a couple of years now so I don’t mind doing either.
“Whatever the gaffer wants to do with his philosophy is fine. I think it’s working well at the moment, we just have to take our chances.”
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