Saturday 18th March, 2017 at 7:12pm
It would be late heartache again for Thistle in Ayrshire on Saturday afternoon. A mistake by Tomas Cerny in the closing stages of the match saw Killie notch an equaliser against the run of play. Although Alan Archibald was clearly disappointed not to have taken all three points but the Thistle boss was adamant that it wasn’t a case of the same old failings striking again when he spoke to ptfc.co.uk after the game.
“I think today’s a bit different to last week. Today was an error that you can’t legislate for and it’s just a shame that one of our most consistent performers in Tomas Cerny has made the mistake in the dying minutes of the game. He has saved us probably double figures in terms of points over the course of the season so it really isn’t like him.
“It’s one error and hopefully that’s it for him. I don’t think he had one last year. You just can’t legislate for something like that – it’s not bad defending, we’ve not dropped too deep. It doesn’t feel good but it certainly isn’t the same as last week.”
On Cerny’s reaction to the error Archibald was adamant that the Firhill number one would bounce straight back.
“Tomas is an absolute model professional so he was already reviewing the footage after the game. I think he maybe thought one of their strikers was coming across him which took his eye off the play for a second but, as I say, he’s saved us a number of times already this season and I’m sure he will more than make up for it between now and the final game.
“It will hit him hard but it’s a team game and we’ll go again. He is one of the most professional players at the club so we know that he will definitely bounce back and that’s the most important thing.”
It would be difficult to argue with anyone who said Thistle deserved all three points as the visitors dominated play – especially after the break.
Archie said: “I thought Kilmarnock were the better team for the first 25 or 30 minutes. They caused us problems from set plays and we struggled to really get going. I thought we were excellent in the second half though and the rain certainly helped the surface. It allowed us to pass the ball a bit more and we played a lot of good stuff – hitting the post and the bar too.
“I thought we did enough to win the game 1-0 to be honest.”
Despite the result there were plenty of positives to take, the performances of the two young centre backs, Lindsay and Keown, was particularly impressive.
“Killie played direct football today and Boyd caused us problems but I thought the two young centre backs were outstanding, especially once they got to grips with the movement off the ball.
“I think the only negative with the way we played was that we had a couple of chances to hit them on the break away and never took them to give us a chance of making it 2-0.”
Despite a good industrious performance, Thistle number nine Kris Doolan couldn’t grab his 100th Thistle goal. Archibald knows it is only a matter of time for the fans’ favourite though.
“I had a funny feeling it wouldn’t come for him today to be honest. there was a lot of talk before the game because of his connection to the area but it wasn’t to be for him today. He’ll definitely get there though, it’s just a matter of time. His work rate and effort today was outstanding as it always is.”
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Article Copyright © 2017. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
