Sat 19 April, 2014
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership 
Rugby Park, KilmarnockVitalijs Maksimenko (53)
Kallum Higginbotham (56), Aaron Taylor-Sinclair (84)
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership
Sat 19 April, 2014. Kick Off: - 15:00
Rugby Park, Kilmarnock
After a fortnight without a game it’s back into action tomorrow afternoon when Thistle make the relatively short trip down to Kilmarnock as we reach the, post-split, business end of the season.
Our last outing ended in bitter disappointment with defeat against Hearts and for manager Alan Archibald it has been a long wait to get back into the thick of the action as he admitted when he spoke to [link:HOME] earlier today;
“To be honest after a result like the Hearts one you want a game the next day to try and get it out of your system. We’ve been desperate to get back playing and it is has been a long wait. We’ve spent the time well though. We’ve sat down with the players and watched the Hearts game back and analysed what went wrong. We simply made far too many mistakes. Just about the only positive thing that we could take from that game was the way that we played in the first 20-25 minutes when we passed and moved the ball well. We will be looking for a repeat of that tomorrow, except for the full 90 minutes this time.”
Alan continued;
“We are well and truly into the business end of the season now and we know that in the next five games we have to pick up points. One thing about the split is that you know that something has to give in every game and those around you will drop points; the reward for winning is an obvious one. A win tomorrow, for example, would see us go level on points with Kilmarnock and that would drag them back into it as well and we would know that at least two other teams would drop points as well.”
Finally Alan provided us with the latest injury news.
“We had some knocks towards the end of last week and we had to watch what we were doing in training but the good news going into tomorrow’s game is that it is only the long term injured players that will miss the game. Conrad Balatoni has trained this week and he has a chance of playing tomorrow which is good news for us. On the downside Stephen O’Donnell has had surgery on his hip and that’s the last we will see of him until pre-season. This is something that Stephen has been bothered with for some time and eventually he said that he couldn’t continue with it. It’s a little similar with Aaron Muirhead in the respect that Aaron had been carrying his injury for some time, since the Hearts game at Tynecastle in fact. There is a chance that Aaron will be back for the final game of the season but it is only an outside chance. Last season all our injuries seemed to be in midfield, this year they are all in defence. It’s a blow but it just gives other players the chance to come in and do well.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 1 3 7 12
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 9
Kallum Higginbotham 6
Steven Lawless 5
Lyle Taylor 5
Aaron Muirhead 4
Conrad Balatoni 2
Christie Elliott 3
Chris Erskine 2
Ross Forbes 1
Gary Fraser 1
Lee Mair 1
Jordan McMillan 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 5th 2014
Partick Thistle 2, Hearts 4
Kilmarnock Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 0 3 8 10
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Boyd 19
Chris Johnston 4
Rory McKenzie 4
Darren Barr 2
Sean Clohessy 2
Robbie Muirhead 2
Barry Nicholson 2
Lee Ashcroft 1
Sammy Clingan 1
Alexi Eremenko 1
Michael Gardyne 1
Jackson Irvine 1
Craig Slater 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 5th 2014
Kilmarnock 1, St Johnstone 2
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Saturday January 18th 2014
Partick Thistle 1, Kilmarnock 1
Teams
Thistle: Gallacher, O’Donnell, Taylor-Sinclair, Balatoni, Craigen, Bannigan, Lawless (Elliott), Mair, Taylor, Fraser (Muirhead), Higginbotham.
Kilmarnock: Samson, Tesselaar, Irvine, Clingan, Boyd, Johnston (Kiltie), McKenzie (Gros), Slater, Pascali, Ashcroft, Muirhead.
Scorers
Thistle: Higginbotham (3)
Kilmarnock: Muirhead (90)
Crowd: 4,092
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 19th 2014
Kilmarnock v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Supporters Buses
Match Officials
Referee: Brian Colvin
Assistant Referees: Stuart Stevenson and Ross Haswell
Fourth Official: Greg Aitken
Other Fixtures
Scottish Premiership
Hearts v Ross County
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Aberdeen (Friday)
Motherwell v Celtic
St Johnstone v Dundee United
St Mirren v Hibernian
PTFC.co.uk caught up with a very happy Alan Archibald after the critical 2-1 victory at Rugby Park today. He was very proud of his team’s performance and feels it is the perfect springboard for the closing weeks of the season.
He said: “It was a fantastic result and really fantastic reaction, particularly after the last time. I thought in the first half we were very very good and I think the boys showed a hunger and desire from the off – they really wanted it today. There were top performances all over the field and I think we more than deserved the three points.”
It wasn’t all plain sailing though. Kilmarnock had their chances and at several points during the game Archibald felt that it might be the same old story yet again.
“Obviously they had their spells, but we rode it out and I think we deserved the win in the end. There was a bit of concern when we were getting the chances but weren’t able to score, I said to Scott Paterson that I felt a bit of déjà vu setting in. We were very good earlier in the season down here and missed chance after chance. You’ve always got to be wary of that, especially when they got their goal, but I thought we showed great character to bounce back.
“Getting a goal quickly to get us back into it again makes a big difference too because the longer the game goes on the more you think it just isn’t going to come but we were delighted when it did!”
Thistle showed no sign of tiring as the game went on and it was ultimately that extra stamina that got the jags over the line.
“We finished very well. We always knew that they were a fit team and we would have to match them right to the end if we were going to get the result. We showed great fitness and determination in the heat today and that’s definitely something we’re going to need in the final four games.
“Everybody wanted to get on and win the game and, at that point, it was important that we didn’t get carried away and end up with nothing. As it was we managed the game well and ended up with an absolutely vital victory in the end.”
Looking forward to St Mirren on Friday Alan said: “We’ll take the momentum from this game into our next match at Firhill. The fans here today were absolutely tremendous – the players really noticed it and it helped, particularly in the later stages. Hopefully we can put in a performance they can be proud of come Friday, especially considering how we let them down the last time out.”
