Crighton: We’ve been written off, but I couldn’t be prouder
SEAN CRIGHTON admits he’d have ‘bitten your hand off’ for a sixth place finish in the William Hill Championship when Queen’s Park kicked off the campaign in August.
Now he’s aiming to improve on that finish next season – although keeping his feet firmly on the ground.
First-team manager Crighton signed a two-year contract extension days after a 0-0 draw at Morton confirmed Queen’s Park would remain a Championship side next season.
Scepticism over the club’s prospects had been rife last summer as he assembled a squad for his first season as a head coach in his own right, but Friday’s 1-1 draw confirmed the Spiders’ spot in the table after safety was assured last month.
The summer will be another busy one, but Crighton is building on optimism from the season just past although he still has one task at the top of his to do list.
Asked what’s next by external media following the Friday night fixture at Firhill, he replied: “I’m the type of guy who wants to go again – can we go higher?
“We still need to understand where we are as a club. Everyone had written us off at the start of this season but from my point of view we need to make sure we are in the Championship the year after but I’ll also be looking at ‘can we improve on what we’ve done this time?’.”
Credit has been paid, not just to the job Crighton and the Spdiers have done this season, but in the way they managed it.
Sixth place is higher than each of the previous two seasons and a placement achieved with two games to spare.
He went on: “If you’d have said to me we’d have finished sixth this season I’d have bitten your hand off and the players have been written off since day dot. I’ve been written off and my staff have been written off.
“Overall this club has been written off so I’m really proud as a manager to go out and say we finished in a really good position, right in the middle of the table – but I’m an ambitious guy and I want to improve on that.”
As it happened, results elsewhere meant the outcome of Queen’s Park’s short trip across the Clyde wouldn’t move their league placing with seventh-placed Ayr losing and Raith maintaining fifth with a late win to relegate Ross County.
“I just told them to take the shackles off, and go and play. We played a couple of kids as well and I thought they were excellent. They worked so hard and Thistle, for me, are a really good team so I was really delighted with the performance.”
And for Michal Ruth too.
The first-team manager added: “We had a lot of good chances, but I’m unhappy with the goal we conceded and I’m really proud of them.
“I said at the start of the season, Michael Ruth will come into Queen’s Park and score goals. I had no doubt in him. He’s running on empty now, his load’s been quite high since he came back from a bad injury and we’ve been playing him – now he needs a summer break to recover and come back for pre-season.
“Hopefully we can hang onto the guys who are here and we can re-build.”
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