Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan declared they would attack the cinch Premiership play-off final with the same mentality that has seen them score 16 goals in four games. The Jags set up a two-legged final against Kilmarnock or Ross County with a 5-0 semi-final second-leg victory over 10-man Ayr at Somerset Park. Looking ahead to next Thursday’s first leg, Doolan said: “They are Premiership sides for a reason but we have a one-track mentality, we want to go up. “We haven’t limped into the play-offs, we have not sat back and absorbed pressure, we have been the team in the ascendancy. That won’t change in the final.” A double from Scott Tiffoney and goals from Jack McMillan, Steven Lawless and Kevin Holt completed an 8-0 aggregate victory. Doolan said: “It’s a statement of what we’re capable of. To score five goals in a play-off game under the pressure that comes was brilliant to watch. “We’ve got stronger as these games have gone on and we spoke about that. “I’ve been on the other side of it as a Premiership side when you’re used to losing games and you come up against a Championship side who are used to winning. We’ve built a winning environment here. “We will rest up and be ready for the next challenge ahead and come into it confident.” Ayr’s top goalscorer Dipo Akinyemi was sent off in the 25th minute after lashing out at Aaron Muirhead and appearing to catch the defender’s chin with his forearm. “I’ve not seen it so I am being careful not to comment on it but I felt there was a foul on him prior to that and he has reacted,” said Ayr manager Lee Bullen, who bemoaned defensive errors over the two legs. “But you can’t react and you can’t lift your hands. By the letter of the law he probably does go but if he gets the foul in the first place he maybe doesn’t raise his hands.” Meanwhile, Bullen was in the dark over rumours that Dundee had approached Ayr for permission to speak to him over their vacant managerial position. “I have not heard a dickie bird,” he said. “Nothing at all, absolutely nothing at all. I have got a job to do at Ayr, we are still in the early parts of that, building a story at Ayr United and I have genuinely not heard a thing from Dundee at all.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jurgen Klopp has ‘no worries’ over Mohamed Salah’s future at Liverpool Granit Xhaka ‘crucial’ part of surprise Arsenal title challenge – Mikel Arteta Michael O’Neill to put faith in youth as injuries pile up for Northern Ireland

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Alex Greenwood claimed she “cannot put it into the words”, so she just kept repeating the words that made her feel like that. “We’re in a World Cup final.” “I just keep having to say it,” she laughed. It is a glorious fact worth actually reflecting on, even as thoughts quickly turned to Sunday, what next, who starts, whether Lauren James comes in. If actually winning the World Cup is the great ambition of any career, the final itself is the great stage. Those who step onto the pitch will leave their own mark on history, the very line-ups part of the record that makes football so rich. “We wanted to take England and women’s football to a new level and we have certainly done that over the last 12 months,” Ella Toone said. They’ve taken it all to the highest level for the very first time. That is worth celebrating, as Sarina Wiegman and the players insisted they would be doing. The squad were loving it out on the pitch but, as the Stadium Australia sound system played the Fifa-approved songs, they quickly realised they wanted to get into the dressing room and play their own music. This was the overriding feeling as they then made their way through the mixed zone. “We will celebrate tonight, I’d rather be in the changing room than talking to you lot,” Toone smiled. Everything they said still captured all it means. Some of them might have been cliches, but they’re cliches for a reason. They’re just what comes to mind as you try to make sense of something that goes beyond your imagination; your hopes. “It’s unbelievable, this is what dreams are made of,” Chloe Kelly said. “It is history,” Lucy Bronze added. Toone, meanwhile, graciously spoke a lot despite pleading she was so eager to get away. “This is going to be the biggest game of our careers.” That’s apt, because this - to quote their manager - has been a team that has grown with this World Cup. That is the major theme of, and explanation for, England’s historic run to the final. Performances have gotten better. Key players, and especially the attackers, have found form. Solving so many problems has honed the team. It meant they were supremely primed for what was supposedly their biggest test so far, a semi-final against a fine Australia in front of a fervent home crowd. There was even the shock of Sam Kerr’s thunderbolt, and a brief period where it seemed like it could all turn. Not a bit of it. Weaker sides, or even previous England teams, might well have wilted at that point. England turned it into their second biggest win of the World Cup so far, three of their attackers fittingly scoring again. “We just have this belief, nothing fazes us,” Toone added. “We face a lot of challenges this tournament and we have come through every one of them.” Lucy Bronze echoed that. “This tournament we’ve had so many things go against us, red cards, key players getting injured before the tournament, during the tournament, going a goal down in the last game, going against the host nation, everyone’s throwing everything at us including the kitchen sink. And we’ve just won games.” The variety of ways they have to win was pleasingly followed by the variety of the goals. One was just a straight contender for goal of the tournament, even as it swerved into the top corner, a moment of pure quality. “Honestly, that’s the best shot I’ve hit in my life,” Toone said. The second was a classic piece of opportunism, if from a rudimentary approach. Lauren Hemp had to be there, though, just as she was almost everywhere throughout this semi-final. “She has been like that the last few games,” Toone said. “She is just a nuisance. She runs in behind, she comes to feet, she is fast and she is strong. I think she would be a nightmare to play against and she has shown that today with a goal and an assist too . But it’s a team performance, we all dug deep.” The last from Alessia Russo was a classic striker’s finish, after some deft play from Hemp. It all makes it very difficult for Wiegman to bring Lauren James back in. This has been another irony of the World Cup, that shows how well England have adapted. Wiegman generally doesn’t like to change a team that works, but has been forced to do so at pretty much every step. Now, as the path clears to the grand stage, she will surely keep it as is. James might even be better value as a potential game-changer to come on. Even someone as meticulous and forward-thinking as Wiegman, however, admitted that was something to consider tomorrow. Now was the time to just be happy. Hence there was a joyous response when Greenwood was asked about previous semi-final disappointment in 2015 and 2019, and how England had never previously got this far. “That’s something we don’t have to think about any more.” There was now only hope, ambition, dreams coming true. “I’ve always said the one thing I’ve wanted for England is to get a star above my crest,” Bronze said. “The men have it and we don’t, so finally we can share the same crest.” Read More Sensational England capitalise on Sam Kerr’s missed moment to make World Cup history How England deployed dark arts and cool heads to silence Australian noise Sarina Wiegman: Inside the ‘genius’ mind behind England’s run to the World Cup final Lionesses celebrate reaching World Cup final – Wednesday’s sporting social Lauren Hemp hails ‘special’ England as Ella Toone toasts ‘best shot’ of her life Sarina Wiegman v Jorge Vilda – a look at the coaches in Women’s World Cup final

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