Kyle Turner hoping sixth play-off's the charm as Ayr await

The Herald Scotland

08-05-2025

This is the Jags No.6's sixth attempt, and Turner is determined to use that previous experience to turn the Premiership play-off quarter-final around at Somerset Park tomorrow evening.
The Honest Men hold a 1-0 advantage, with Jamie Murphy's second-half header on Tuesday night giving Scott Brown's side a priceless lead to defend back on their own turf.
Turner is under no illusions about the task that awaits Thistle. He is the first to admit that the performance at Firhill fell flat. But, pointing to the Jags' back-to-back wins over Falkirk and Livingston, he also knows that he and his team-mates are capable of so much more.
'Apart from Thistle, there was Raith Rovers last year,' Turner said of his play-off experience. 'Airdrie before that, Stranraer before that. I think that's what, six years I've been in the playoffs? And I've not won [promotion] once yet.
'I haven't been promoted yet and they've all been promotion play-offs I've been in. So I need to use my experience on Friday and help players that maybe haven't been in it as much. But listen, we know the job at hand. We just need to produce a performance like the one at Livingston again. And hopefully that'll be enough.'
He added: 'Yeah, [it's painful to see other teams celebrating promotion]. You see Falkirk. You see their celebrations on Friday. That's what you want to be. That's what every footballer aspires to do. It's to win trophies and get promotions, have good memories.'
Brian Graham, who is co-managing Thistle on an interim basis alongside Mark Wilson, said after Tuesday's defeat that he didn't think his side could play much worse. Turner agrees with that assessment.
'Yeah, we spoke about it in the dressing room,' he said. 'I thought we weren't great at all. We didn't look after the ball well enough. I don't think we created enough chances as a team. But listen, we're going to Friday now. It's only half-time.
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'I don't think there was much in the game. I think Ayr scored probably with their only good chance. Good ball, good header. But I think we had a couple of chances as well. The keeper makes a great save in the first half. Brian has a great header in the second half. He's unlucky.
'We went to Livingston on Friday and got a result. We beat Falkirk out here when we had to win as well. So we'll be looking forward to it.
'We just need to have a mindset now of just going and winning. No matter what, we need to win the game. We win 1-0, it goes to extra time. But we just need to go down and win the game.'
Thistle may well be light on bodies again for the second leg – 23-year-old Terry Ablade was the only outfield player on the home side's bench aged 21 or over on Tuesday night – but Turner remains convinced that there remains enough experience in the midfield and forward areas to turn the tie around.
You can't start a fire without a spark, after all - but he says Thistle have plenty of match-winners who can light up Somerset Park.
'Big games need big players,' he reasoned. 'And I think we've got that. [Stevie] Lawless, Fitzy [Aidan Fitzpatrick], Brian [Graham], me, [Stuart] Bannigan, even Ben [Stanway] coming on, [Robbie] Crawford - we've got a lot of good players in there. So Friday we just need to turn up and try and win the game.'
Ayr forward Murphy, meanwhile, says Scott Brown's men were happy with their well-executed game plan that leaves them in the driving seat.
When these two sides last met in the play-offs, Thistle won the first leg 3-0 a Firhill before thrashing Lee Bullen's side 5-0 at Somerset Park – a fact the players were cognisant of heading into Tuesday's first leg.
'The game plan probably was to leave here and not be out of the game,' Murphy explained. 'Try and keep a clean sheet and try and get a goal or two, and everything seems to have went to plan.
'But we know it's only half-time and there's still 90 minutes to play, so we're looking forward to Friday.
'I know I wasn't here but here a couple of years ago we finished second and went into that next play-off, and we were 3-0 down in the first leg. So the plan was to not let that happen again. It was a good performance all round. I thought we were the better team.'