Friday 29th September, 2017 at 2:30pm
As his side prepare for a massive game at Fir Park which could see Thistle put to bed one of the longest streaks without a win at an opposition stadium, Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk to deliver the latest news and updates from inside the camp.
Archie started off by turning his thoughts to Saturday’s in form opposition.
“I think they will be a confident and buoyant team as they’re in a real good run of form. I think Steve has managed them brilliantly, especially considering the turnover of players they’ve had. I’ve been really impressed by them so far.
“A lot is made of their physicality and I don’t want to go down the route of them just being big and strong because I don’t think that does them justice. They are a strong side but they also have one of the best strikers in the league who is in excellent form.
“We need to be aware of their strengths but we need to play to ours as well. We don’t want to change the way we play too much because you have already seen this season how well we can play – now we just need the results as reward for that play.”
In Louis Moult Motherwell have one of the most in form strikers in Scotland and Archibald is only too aware of just how much of a threat he can be.
“He’s a real handful but it isn’t all about him – it’s not a one man team. We have to stop the supply to him further up the park too, if you can do that then he becomes less of a threat because you start to stop them playing the way they want to play.
“We know they are going to look to play to their strengths and get it up to him early but our players are aware of that. It’s not like it was when I played when there wasn’t a great deal of footage available, now the lads can watch as much as they want and learn how a player plays and the movement he makes.
“Middle to front we’ve done well and scored some good goals so we need to find a way to go and win the game too.”
Despite still searching for their first league win of the campaign the Jags boss insists the mood in the camp is still good, something that owes a lot to the good, albeit not winning, performances on the pitch.
“The boys are in pretty good fettle surprisingly enough. I think it makes a difference that we have played well and got good points from teams who some people had written us off against. We don’t take it lightly though and the longer it goes on the harder it becomes to win a game – we know that and that’s why we are desperate to win on Saturday.
“We’ve got a real run of games now where we have to get victories. The players are well aware of that fact and I’m aware of that pressure as well. It’s no time for panic stations yet though as there have been plenty of positives and good play in the last few games. If we keep attacking teams and looking to win the results will come. These fixtures become real six pointers though. We’ve done well when it has come down to these kinds of runs in the past and we need to do it again this term.
“We asked the boys to go and build on the good point they got against Ross County and I think they’ve dine that with the point at home to Hearts. Now we just need to get the right combination to get a win under our belts and hopefully kick start our season.”
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