Saturday 9th July, 2016 at 9:01am
A 2-1 victory against Greenock Morton rounded off Thistle’s pre-season fixtures and, with the new style Betfred Cup now on the horizon, Jags boss, Alan Archibald, now turns his mind to the start of the competitive action. Archie was on hand to speak to PTFC.co.uk pitchside at Cappielow and let us know his post-match thoughts.
Archibald said: “I thought the boys really shifted the ball well today and that showed in the early stages of the game when some of the moves we put together were really nice. The pitch here is really good which helped the game but I was generally pleased with what I saw.
“It was a couple of really nice goals from Erskine. That’s what you get from Chris, he wasn’t at his best on Tuesday night but today he showed his real quality and the finish for the second was superb. In truth we had a good few chances in the first half which was great to see and hopefully that is something we will carry into the season proper once it starts.”
There were a couple of knocks sustained to Thistle players in the first half which could have proved problematic for an already stretched squad, but Archie is confident neither will pose any long term issues.
“Sean Welsh and David Amoo both picked up wee knocks in the first half. Sean just caught an elbow to the mouth and David tackled the post trying to score but both should be fine for Friday. I certainly hope there aren’t any long term issues as we are really down to the bare bones at the moment.
The main concern for us is the goalkeeping situation as Ryan Scully is out with a thigh strain and Tomas Cerny is still coming back from last season’s injury. We’ll assess the options next week and if we need to get someone in short term to cover then that’s what we’ll need to do. On the plus side Callum Booth got 45 minutes to day and looked fit and raring to go which is a real boost ahead of Friday night.
