Wednesday 7th February, 2018 at 1:00am
Having drawn against the Govan side earlier in the season at home, Partick Thistle looked to extend the gap between themselves and the bottom two with another result against Rangers tonight. Unfortunately for the Jags, they couldn’t take anything from the game as, despite a promising first half, they fell to a 2-0 defeat.
Goals from Josh Windass and James Tavernier saw the visitors to victory while the Jags remained just a single point above 11th spot. Thistle manager, Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk after the game.
Archie started by telling us that although the end result was disappointing, he was impressed by his side’s performance during the opening 45 minutes when his Jags were looked dangerous and incisive on plenty of occasions.
“I was happy with the way we started. We looked up for it and created some decent chances. We were probably on top for the first 30 minutes but when you are in control, you have to score and we didn’t do that which cost us.
“Ryan Edwards had a spectacular goal ruled out but I’ve been told that he was onside which is annoying. Also Conor Sammon hits the inside of the post and you’re expecting the net to bulge considering his form, however it just didn’t happen for us and they improved for the second half.”
With his side’s showing in mind, Alan believes that the timing of Rangers’ two goals really hurt his side.
“They’ve scored a couple of good goals but we can always do better defensively. In terms of timing, them scoring off the back of our period of control was a sucker punch and then they doubled the lead just after we were looking like coming back into it so I do think that the goals came at bad times for us momentum-wise.”
The gaffer knows that his side must learn to take advantage of spells of dominance if they are to climb the Ladbrokes Premiership table, after all it’s goals that will win games.
“We created plenty but weren’t clinical enough. There were a couple of decisions that went against us but we have to expect that and take the chances that won’t be ruled out. That’s the main thing that was missing tonight. Rangers obviously have quality players who are very valuable and you can see that quality brings the clinical finishing which won them the game this evening.”
The Jags have little time to dwell on the day’s defeat as they must now focus on a William Hill Scottish Cup tie against Celtic on Saturday. Kick-off is 12:15 at Parkhead.
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