Wednesday 1st January, 2014 at 2:33pm
Sunday’s defeat against Motherwell was obviously a very painful one for all concerned but things move quickly in football and while hopefully lessons will be learned from Sunday’s defeat the focus is now well and truly on the New Year Day trip to play Celtic.
Said Thistle manager Alan Archibald when speaking to [link:HOME];
“The players were naturally very down after the game on Sunday and it was a hard defeat to take. The possession was very even in the first half but in the second half an experienced Motherwell side just picked us off on the counter attack. As I said the players were really down after the game but they are fine now. In many ways this game is the ideal one for us to have after the Motherwell game. It’s not hard to lift the players for a game against Celtic. It’s these types of game that you want to get promoted to play in. Many of the players have never played at Parkhead before and this game gives them the opportunity to regain some pride. We are approaching the game in a positive frame of mind; the players are buzzing ahead of the game.”
New signing Lyle Taylor is set to be involved in the squad for the game.
“We haven’t received clearance for him yet but the SFA have told us that that should be through tomorrow morning and Lyle will be part of the squad for tomorrow’s game. We will need to wait and see whether he will start or not.”
Going into the game there are no fresh injury or illness worries as the virus that hit the dressing room seems to have passed.
“Christie Elliott is feeling better”, said the manager before continuing; “but Jordan McMillan is still unwell and won’t be involved. The virus has been around the place for a wee while now; Aaron Muirhead picked it up after the abandoned St Johnstone game but hopefully we have seen the last of it now.”
The January transfer window will be opening very shortly and the manager is anticipating that there will be further changes to his squad before it closes.
“We’re working on bringing in new faces but it hard. You can think that you have a deal sorted out only for it to fall through at the last minute. You are never certain a deal is going to be completed until it is all done. It could be that there will be one or two leaving in January as well. Henoc Mukendi has already returned to Liverpool and Gary Fraser has gone back to Bolton as they want to have a chat with him. We’re still hoping that we might be able to bring him back in the New Year.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 2 3 3 9
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 7
Steven Lawless 4
Aaron Muirhead 4
Christie Elliott 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Ross Forbes 1
Kallum Higginbotham 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Sunday December 29th 2013
Partick Thistle 1, Motherwell 5
Celtic Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
4 0 1 6 6
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Commons 15
Georgios Samaras 8
James Forrest 6
Anthony Stokes 6
Joe Ledley 3
Charlie Mulgrew 3
Teemu Pukki 3
Virgil van Dijk 3
Efe Ambrose 2
Amido Balde 2
Scott Brown 2
Mikael Lustig 2
Bahrudin Atajic 1
Derk Boerrigter 1
Beram Kayal 1
Adam Mathews 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Sunday December 29th 2013
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0, Celtic 1
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Sunday October 27th 2013
Partick Thistle 1, Celtic 2
Teams
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Taylor-Sinclair, Welsh, Muirhead, Balatoni, Craigen (Forbes), Bannigan (Elliott), Doolan, Osbourne, Higginbotham.
Celtic: Forster, Izaguirre (Biton), Ambrose, Dijk, Brown, Samaras, Stokes, Ledley, Pukki (McGeouch), Lustig, Kayal (Balde).
Scorers
Thistle: Doolan (66)
Celtic: Samaras (33), Balde (75)
Crowd: 7,978
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Wednesday January 1st 2014
Celtic v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
PLEASE NOTE TICKETS FOR THE AWAY END ARE SOLD OUT. NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON THE DAY OF THE GAME.
Supporters’ Buses Information
Match Officials
Referee: Kevin Clancy
Assistant Referees: David McGeachie and Douglas Ross
Fourth Official: George Salmond
Other Premiership Fixtures
Dundee United v Aberdeen
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Ross County
Motherwell v St Johnstone
