Sunday 20th October, 2013 at 2:18pm
It has been a long 12 days since the defeat to Hibs at Firhill, a defeat that most agreed was a very unfair reflection on the 90 minutes, but defeat It was and now the Jags embark on a string on 3 matches against what many consider to be the be the best three teams in the league, all on SKY TV, starting with a trip to Inverness on Sunday. Despite that length of time that has elapsed, manager Alan Archibald admitted that there is still a spritely step in the players at training:
“They have been really lively and although it has been hard, dwelling on a defeat in a match we should have won, we feel that it is well out our system now and we are fully focussed on a game against a team I rate very highly and we are going to have to produce an excellent performance to get anything out of it.”
To that end, we asked the manager how he was thinking with regards to style of play and personnel ahead of the game:
“Squad wise we are almost complete. Only Jordan McMillan misses out although he is now back in full training but he does have a bit of catching up to do. Other than that I will be taking a full squad up north and we will select what we think is our best side to take on a team that are excellent on their home patch.
As far as style of play is concerned I am still extremely happy at the way we play our football and I do not want to sacrifice that. We are still playing well and creating chances and because of that we will not deviate too much from our way of playing, I just hope we can get the right formula to get some goals into our play, which I think we deserve.”
The gaffer also admitted it was a tough run of fixtures but reflecting on the 9 games played so far, is convinced that the team have settled in well into the top flight:
“There is no doubt we are good enough to play at this level, and with the exception of Celtic, who are just a little bit better than the rest, I don’t think there is a lot to choose from. It was essential that our players had belief in themselves and I think they undoubtedly have that, it is now a case of building up as much confidence as we can and go and win as many games as possible.”
