Wednesday 11th February, 2015 at 9:46am
For Jags boss, Alan Archibald, it’s difficult to tell whether facing the Scottish Premiership champions, just days after a disappointing exit from the William Hill Scottish Cup, is a good thing or a bad thing.
“I don’t think there’s ever a good time to play the champions, especially given the form they’re in at the moment – that’s one way to look at it anyway. On the other side of things, I don’t think anybody – outside of this building – really expects us to do anything. That’s the usual when you play Celtic of course, everyone thinks they’re just going to run over the top of teams. We’ll be doing everything we can to show that just isn’t the case.
“In hindsight we were maybe better playing them on New Year’s Day when we were on a better run of form and they were maybe struggling a bit. We had a lot of players out for that game too though so you never know. The important thing is that we are playing them tonight and we’ll be going all out to get a result.”
Having at times been crippled by injury since Christmas, Archibald finally has almost a full squad to choose from.
“Yes, we have almost a full squad to choose from now, only Sean Welsh (ankle) and Jordan McMillan (suspension) remain out of contention. We have the bodies now and know that we can go out there and hurt them, but we also know how hard we will need to work to do that. Every player has to work their hardest and play their best, but if we can do that we could do something against them.
“Consistency is definitely still an issue for us. We’ve gone from being outstanding one week, to poor the next, to outstanding again. Sometimes I’d take a game or two in between those two extremes! We need everyone on their game tomorrow, all 11 starters and the subs need to do everything they can to help us over the line.”
Archie doesn’t have too many players with a great deal of experience playing in Scotland against Celtic but that isn’t an issue for the Jags boss.
“It’s a double edged sword. Sometimes it’s good to have boys who have that experience, but then if you have a player who has played Celtic 20 times and lost 20 times that probably isn’t great going into the game either. That’s why it’s sometimes good to put youngsters in for these games because they have no fear. The important thing is to have players in the team who have experience playing in big games. We have that right across our team and we will need to use every ounce of it in the match tonight.”
Tickets for the Thistle end are still on sale and are available online (ptfctickets.co.uk), on the phone (0141 579 1971) or in person by visiting the Partick Thistle offices. Tickets are priced:
Adults: £25
Concessions: £17
U16s: £5
Anybody who had a ticket for the game on New Year’s Day should retain it as it will remain valid for Wednesday night’s match.
The game is an all ticket match and there will be no tickets on sale immediately before kick off and no cash turnstiles in operation. Tickets must be bought in advance and there will be none sold after 5pm on Wednesday night.
Partick Thistle can only sell tickets to home support. All away ticket sales are being handled by Celtic.
