Ian McCall outlines Brian Graham importance as Partick Thistle boss dismisses talk of refereeing agendas against his side

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall reckons he has never worked with a player with as big a heart as Brian Graham as he emphasised the striker’s importance to the Firhill club.

The experienced frontman took his tally for the season to 15 as he netted the only goal of the game against Ayr United last Tuesday.

Despite the narrow victory, it was the end scoreline that left McCall frustrated after the Jags were denied two stonewall penalties.

McCall, who has been involved in Scottish football for five decades, insists Graham is the perfect role model for any aspiring young footballers but admitted the 34-year-old will need to be managed well over the coming months.

He said: “In all my time I’m not sure if I’ve had a player with a bigger heart, ever, in 25 years of management.

“Our fans love him, his goal ratio for us is exceptional. He’s going to have to be managed, he won’t play every game between now and the end of the season because of the volume of games and he sometimes gets a stiff back.

“He’s a really important player for us. One of the things I wanted to do when I came back to the club was to give our fans some heroes like they had in the 1971 cup-winning team.

“Brian is one of them because he celebrates each goal as if it’s his first and it’s great to see.”

“He’s a great example to young players and he has got plenty of attributes, no doubt about that. It’s just an innate thing that you have and it’s hard to put into someone.

“He’s been a great signing for us. When I make signings I want to be pretty sure we’ll get the best out of them.

“When I signed him, (Darren) Brownlie, (Ross) Docherty and (Zak) Rudden two years ago, I was sure about all of them and it’s been proved right because they’ve been excellent.”

During their clash against Ayr, referee Greg Aitken waved away two penalty claims and McCall was cautioned for his protests, which he has subsequently discussed with Head of Referee Operations Crawford Allan.

However, the Thistle boss downplayed any notion that officials have agendas against certain teams.

McCall added: “We looked at the penalty incidents repeatedly and I spoke to Crawford and Greg about them because two were really clear.

“I like Greg, he’s a good referee. You hear people talking about agendas but I think that’s the biggest lot of nonsense.

“If anyone thinks ref’s are bias towards certain teams then we’re best just stopping football. Sometimes the make mistakes, but we’ve not had one penalty decision go for us this season.

“We’ve had more touches in the opponents box than any team in the league, so those stats don’t really add up.

“When I got booked I didn’t swear at Greg, I just thought the second decision was incredibly clear. It’s honest mistakes but we all make them.”