Friday 23rd December, 2016 at 11:31pm
It was pure elation for the hardy 160 Jags fans who braved the conditions to travel north to Dingwall for Friday night’s clash with Ross County, as their dedication was rewarded with a well-deserved 3-1 victory.
Despite the side’s lowly position in the league, Alan Archibald has at no point lost faith in his side’s ability to get results when it matters most. That faith was repaid at the Global Energy Stadium. The gaffer spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly after full time to give his thoughts on the contest.
Archie said: “I’m delighted, absolutely delighted. Despite the scoreline it was a really tough game tonight against a really good side. The conditions made it pretty tough but I thought we managed them really well and I don’t feel the weather caused us too many problems.
“It was a really tight first half and we knew the first goal was always going to be key. There weren’t many chances, just a few shots from distance, and it was vital that we made the first proper chance count. In recent games we haven’t been able to grab that and it has cost us so it was superb to see big Liam rise for that first one. I thought we did ever so well after that and dominated the second half.”
It wasn’t just going forward where the Jags dominated though and the back four looked very comfortable throughout.
“I think we’ve been resolute at the back tonight and that gave us a platform to go and build on. The lads kept a very potent strike force pretty quiet which was great to see.
“Tonight really needed us to battle and grind out the result and that’s exactly what the boys did. The only real negative was their goal but the other side of that is that Tomas Cerny had an absolutely fantastic save at a really crucial time so we won’t be too critical.”
The win saw Thistle rise four places in the table, the importance of which Archibald was not going to underestimate – especially with Christmas fast approaching.
“Nobody wants to be bottom at Christmas so it is a big boost to lift ourselves out of that position tonight. We have two home games in a row now before the winter break so we just need to look to go and build on tonight’s result and make sure we don’t lose the momentum that we’ve built up.
“Wednesday against Dundee will be a tough one and it’s important that we stay level headed and go into that match with a good positive attitude. We never got too down when we lost and we won’t get too high after that win. We will keep doing what we are doing and hopefully we can really progress from here on in.”
