Sat 7 December, 2013
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership 
Easter Road, EdinburghJames Collins (90)
Kris Doolan (49)
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership
Sat 7 December, 2013. Kick Off: - 15:00
Easter Road, Edinburgh
Following the disappointment of cup defeat against Aberdeen last week, Saturday sees Thistle make the trip to Easter Road for an important league clash with Hibs. The two teams have only played each other once so far this term, a game which ended in a 1-0 victory for the Edinburgh team. The score line on that occasion certainly didn’t tell the whole story though. Thistle dominated for most of the game before an excellent strike from Hibs midfielder Liam Craig secured victory for the team from Leith.
It has been a period of big change for Hibs with previous manager Pat Fenlon leaving the club at the start of November to be replaced by former Inverness boss Terry Butcher and Saturday’s match will be Butcher’s first home game in charge.
After a much improved defensive performance against Aberdeen, Thistle remain on the hunt for a first league win since beating Terry Butcher’s former team at the Caledonian Stadium in October.
Despite a run of disappointing results Alan Archibald, when speaking to [link:HOME] after training today, is looking to get more points on the board. Looking forward to Saturday’s contest Alan said:
“It’s a chance for us to go level on points with Hibs. If we can go out there and get a victory we can start looking up the way and that’s the difference this game can make. We do have a few suspensions and injuries but that just gives some fresh faces the chance to come into the team this week and maybe make the difference.
“The game against Hibs at Firhill was probably one of our best performances in terms of overall play. We created chances and played some great stuff in their half but we were just missing a goal. They went up the other end and scored with only their second shot on target and nicked the game.”
Thistle have been undone several times this season through set pieces and this has been something Alan and the team have worked hard on in the past few weeks.
Alan said: “The team needs to organise themselves on the pitch and it’s something they are definitely all aware of. We can’t keep losing early goals because it clearly affects how you play during the rest of the game. Overall our defending in the Aberdeen game was much much better and, for the most part, we handled a very strong Aberdeen side that were playing well.
“The feeling among the team this week has been good and everyone is looking forward to going to Easter Road. It will be a very busy stadium on Saturday for Terry’s first home game in charge and we have to use that to our advantage to get a good start in the game.”
Finally, the manager let us in on the all important team news ahead of tomorrow’s game.
“Conrad Balatoni, Stuart Bannigan and Gary Fraser are suspended and we have a doubt over Sean Welsh, Stephen O’Donnell and Jordan McMillan who are all struggling. Otherwise everyone is fit and available.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 0 5 2 13
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 5
Aaron Muirhead 4
Steven Lawless 3
Christie Elliott 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Ross Forbes 1
Kallum Higginbotham 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Last Game
Tennents Scottish Cup Fourth Round
Sunday December 1st 2013
Partick Thistle 0, Aberdeen 1
Hibs Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 1 3 1 4
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Liam Craig 6
Paul Heffernan 3
James Collins 2
Danny Handling 1
Scott Robertson 1
Abdellah Zoubir 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Tennents Scottish Cup Fourth Round
Saturday November 30th 2013
RossCounty 0, Hibs 1
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Monday October 7th 2013
Partick Thistle 0, Hibs 1
Teams
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Taylor-Sinclair, Welsh, Muirhead, Balatoni, Bannigan (Baird), Doolan, Lawless (Elliott), Osbourne, Higginbotham (Forbes).
Hibs: Williams, McGivern, Hanlon, Nelson, Robertson (Stanton), Craig, Collins (Jones), Stevenson, Taiwo (Zoubir), Heffernan, Thomson.
Scorer
Hibs: Craig (69)
Crowd: 4,521
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday December 7th 2013
Hibs v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Supporters’ Buses Information
Match Officials
Referee: John Beaton
Assistant Referees: Alan Mulvanny and Andy Tait
Fourth Official: Kevin Clancy
Other Fixtures
Scottish Premiership
Dundee United v Hearts
Motherwell v Celtic (Friday)
RossCounty v Kilmarnock
St Johnstone v Aberdeen
St Mirren v Inverness Caledonian Thistle
There was heartbreak for Thistle at Easter Road as a Hibs equaliser deep into injury time denied Thistle their first win since October.
Injury and suspension impacted upon the manager’s selection for this game and he made three changes from the side knocked out the Scottish Cup by Aberdeen. Aaron Muirhead replaced the suspended Conrad Balatoni, Jordan McMillan returned at right back and Steven Lawless returned to the starting eleven.
It was the home side that started the game the better and there seemed to be a touch of nervousness surrounding the Thistle performance in the opening ten minutes or so. Hibs were able to win a series of corners and Scott Fox was forced to turn a shot from ex Jag Paul Cairney round the post.
Thistle though started to settle and they had their first effort on goal in the 11th minute when Ben Williams saved from Steven Lawless. Seconds later Thistle threatened again with this time Williams pushing away a fiercely driven effort from Kallum Higginbotham.
This was a good spell for Thistle and as they grew in confidence Steven Lawless was just unable to gather a chipped pass from Kallum Higginbotham and a Christie Elliott shot spun off a Hibs defender into the path of Kris Doolan only for the flag to go up for offside against the Thistle striker.
Hibs saw the bulk of the possession and they were able to put Thistle under pressure at times but only rarely was Scott Fox called into direct action. Thistle though were thankful for a fantastic Jordan McMillan clearance from a Maybury cross and an important block at the edge of the box from Aaron Muirhead as Thistle defended well when required to do so.
Thistle were forced into a change during the first half when Steven Lawless picked up a heavy knock and he was replaced by Ross Forbes.
It was Forbes that had the first effort of the second half although Williams was well placed to make a fairly comfortable save.
At the other end Scott Fox was a little more hard pressed to keep out a long range effort from Tudor Jones; the Thistle keeper having to dive full length to save at his left hand post.
It was an important save as a mere 30 seconds later Thistle took a 49th minute lead with a superbly taken goal from Kris Doolan his 6th of the current season and the 60th of his Thistle career.
Thistle’s confidence took an understandable boost from that goal and a lovely reverse pass from Ross Forbes just failed to reach its’ intended target of Kris Doolan as Thistle looked to press home their advantage.
It took, however, a quite magnificent save from Scott Fox in the 66th minute to deny James Collins and preserve Thistle’s lead.
That was a lead that Thistle could, and perhaps should, have extended with 15 minutes remaining. Ross Forbes enjoyed the break of the ball leaving him with just Williams in the Hibs goal to beat but he rather snatched at the opportunity and sent the ball wide of goal.
Thistle were nearly made to pay for that miss just two minutes later. Jason Cummings, just on as a sub for Hibs, only had to connect with the ball at the back post following a corner from the left but he missed the ball completely.
You did wonder at that point if this was going to be Thistle’s day. There was plenty of late Hibs pressure and on a couple of occasions Thistle really had to scramble the ball clear from their own penalty box.
There would, however, be a late, late blow for Thistle. The game was well into the third minute of injury time when a free kick was launched deep into the Thistle box and Thistle, who had otherwise defended so well, gave James Collins the space he needed to lash home and level the scores.
A goal deep into injury time yesterday denied Thistle what would have been a hugely welcome three points. When speaking to [link:HOME] after the game manager Alan Archibald summed up pretty much what every Thistle fan was thinking at the time.
“It feels 100% like a defeat there is no doubt about that. To lose a goal in the last minute after such a good performance is horrible. The fact that we had defended so well till then just makes it even harder to take.”
Overall though the manager was happy with his side’s performance.
“I don’t think that we looked like a side short of confidence. It was always going to be difficult today with a great atmosphere round the club at Hibs at the moment and with the game being Terry Butcher’s first in charge. I felt that we went out there and more than matched them in every area and we grew in confidence as the game went on.”
That confidence took a real boost after Kris Doolan’s goal. Said Alan;
“You could see the belief in the players every time they broke on Hibs and it looked as if we might pick them off. Ross Forbes was unlucky with his chance. I think he thought that the ball had come off his hand and that’s why he had a wee snatch at the chance.”
The manager was full of praise for Kris Doolan’s goal; the 60th goal of his Thistle career.
“It was a fantastic goal. We tell Dools all the time to work the two centre halves as much as he can. At times he can be a wee bit isolated up front although we try and make sure that that doesn’t happen. On this occasion he was isolated but didn’t need anyone’s help as he went from the halfway line and slotted the ball home brilliantly.”
Despite the late goal the manager is taking plenty of positives from yesterday’s performance.
“The back four has had to change a bit in recent weeks with injuries and suspensions and I thought they were outstanding apart, obviously, for the last minute goal. We reorganised well with the injuries we had. The Hibs approach was a bit like that of Inverness and they brought on the big centre half for the last 5 minutes or so for balls into the box. Over the whole game I felt that we coped well with what Hibs had to offer and we will take the positives from that.”
Thistle lost both Steven Lawless and Kallum Higginbotham to injury during the course of the game and the manager is hoping that neither injury will prove to be too serious.
“I’ve not really had the chance to talk to Kenny Crichton yet but we are hoping that it is just a dead leg that Steven Lawless has suffered. It looks as if he just took a thud on the leg and hopefully it won’t be anything more serious than a dead leg. He really couldn’t move after that which was a blow as I thought Steven was doing well. He was just starting to get in the game. We played him in behind Kris Doolan today just to try and change things about. It looked a sore one for Kallum at the time and I was surprised that he managed to try and carry on and after a few minutes we took him off. I have to say that I thought the subs slotted in really well when they came on. It looked like a real team performance today.”
Having halted a run of defeats we are now going into a vital period where we will be up against those sides in and around us in the league table.
“Hibs are just three points ahead of us and are the nearest team to us above us in the league table. I don’t think there is much between them and us and the likes of Ross County, St Mirren and Kilmarnock. We are as good, on our, as any of them and the players just need to keep believing in themselves. The next couple of months are going to be a crucial period for us. The more players that we can get back fit and free from suspension the better.”
