Caretaker boss Aaron Connolly reckons a difficult spell for East Kilbride Thistle on and off the pitch has made the bond in the squad stronger.
The Showpark side have been rocked by Garry O’Hanlon’s sacking as manager and the shock death of beloved former Jags boss Alan Paterson - who will be laid to rest today - in the last few weeks.
But Connolly – who has taken the reins from O’Hanlon on an interim basis – believes that adversity has seen the squad come together to produce an uplift in performances on the pitch.
The Jags won their first two games under Connolly and on Saturday suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat at Dalry.
It is a far cry from the heavy losses they suffered before that in the West of Scotland Third Division, most notably 6-1 and 4-1 reverses to Lanark Thistle and Lanark United, respectively.
And Connolly said: “I think what we are seeing is the squad settling down and finding a real togetherness and a bond.
“That has probably come from the challenges we have faced in the last few weeks, both in terms of the well-documented news with Alan Paterson and Garry O’Hanlon going out and me stepping in.
“Sometimes adversity brings you closer together and I think that’s probably what has happened with them.
“I can’t fault them for their efforts. They’ve been unbelievable.
“I don’t know if it is anything that I’ve done.
“We have tweaked a couple of things but I don’t like this idea of me coming in and ‘steadying the ship’.
“I think we’ve got a good squad of quality players and they are just starting to gel a bit now.
“We are starting to look more like a unit and I think that would have come in time anyway.
“I have tweaked a couple of things and we’ve put some younger players into the squad to give it some fresh impetus.
“We’ve conceded three goals in the three games and scored five so those figures are better than they were, but I think they can still be a bit better than they are.”
Connolly will be in charge again this weekend when 13th-place Vale of Leven come calling and he expects further discussions with the Showpark hierarchy in the next week regarding his position.
Reflecting on the Dalry defeat, which leaves Thistle 11th in the table, Connolly added: “I thought in the first half that was as good as we have played this season, and certainly in the last few weeks.
“We were good back to middle but in the final third, that final pass or shot didn’t really go for us on Saturday.
“I think that happens sometimes and I’m not going to fault the boys for that. They tried to do all the right things, it was just one of those days.
“Dalry were big and physical. They caused us a few problems on the counter attack but I thought we stood up to that really well.
“But we lost a goal from a set-piece with about 20 minutes to go and we just huffed and puffed from that point.
“It’s disappointing but I feel I’ve seen enough in the performance not to be too downhearted and dejected by it.
“I will be in charge this week again but there’s no other news on going any further than that at the moment.”
Kick-off on Saturday is 2pm.
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