Saturday 17th January, 2015 at 10:16am
Thistle haven’t enjoyed the best of times in Perth since St Johnstone moved to McDiarmid Park, having not won at the ground since 1993. That run continued as a goal early in each half sent Thistle to a 2-0 defeat. Manager Alan Archibald chatted to ptfc.co.uk shortly after the full time whistle.
“We lost a goal to a deflection and a set play. St Johnstone are a hard enough team to play against without giving them a goal of a start. We’ve got plenty to be optimistic about but we can’t give good sides one goal starts.
“The first one we had a chance to clear it in the right back area and we didn’t. The deflection doesn’t help on the way in. After that, in the first half, I thought we were the better team. Ryan Stevenson is unlucky, he hits the bar and that was the difference I think. We started the second half well enough but switched off at a corner. You can’t do that against a good side like St Johnstone.”
Declan McDaid made his second start for Thistle and the manager was quick to praise him.
“I thought Declan did well, he was one of our bright sparks. If we were going to get a goal it was going to come through him or Ryan Stevenson who were creative in the first half. I thought the two of them did really well.”
Despite defeat, the squad are still looking upwards rather than below.
“I think St Johnstone are a bit out of sight now. This was a chance for us to claw them back, even though we’ve got games in hand. We need to put a run together, which isn’t something we’ve done yet this season. We’ve thrown the gauntlet down to the players but they need to show the belief to go and do it. We know there are teams behind us that are trying to grab our coattails which is why it’s important.”
Thistle ended the game playing with three at the back as the squad went down to the bare bones.
“Stephen O’Donnell had to come off injured, Christie Elliott had a knock and Gary Fraser is ill. He hasn’t really recovered from the Dundee United game and we’re down to the bare bones at the moment. We’ve got Hamilton on Wednesday and we just need to try and get everybody fit for that.”
