Saturday 22nd February, 2014 at 2:43pm
A week after the disappointment of a late defeat at Fir Park Thistle are once again gearing up to face one of the league’s high fliers, Aberdeen, this time at Firhill. [link:HOME] caught up with manager, Alan Archibald, after training today to see how the players responded after Saturday’s defeat as well as to get that all important team news.
“The lads, and even myself, were a bit down at the beginning of the week and there was definitely a bit of disbelief about how we didn’t at least take something from the match on Saturday. We just have to look at the positives and to go to Fir Park, score three goals and create numerous other chances shows that we were at least doing something right. They’re a good group of lads and they’re hungry to learn so we just need to take that into the game against Aberdeen on Saturday.”
When asked about the new signings and how they were settling in Alan said: “As the new boys get to know the team and settle in they are just getting better and better. I think it’s always good getting new signings in, it brings a bit of vibrancy to the dressing room. I think that the players like to see new signings coming in and it certainly gives us something different for the second half of the season.”
Looking ahead to Aberdeen, Alan said: “We’re looking forward to it, there’s a lot of similarities between them and Motherwell, similar experience, similar quality and they know how to grind out results. They’ve got an experienced back line and they don’t give much away but, as I said we did it against Motherwell last week and we’ve got to do it again this week – especially as we’re the home team.
“We can take a lot of belief from last week and we know that we can hurt the teams, even if they are at the top end of the table. If we just show belief and confidence in our ability and play in the way I know we can, then there’s no reason why we can’t take something from the game on Saturday.
On the all-important team news Archie said: “Aaron Muirhead took a knock in the under 20s game on Tuesday, Sean Welsh is still out with his groin and obviously Osbourne is out until the end of the season, but apart from that we should be at full strength.”
Kick off at Firhill is 3pm and tickets will be available from the Jackie Husband Stand ticket office as usual.
Prices are:
Adults: £20.00
Concessions: £14.00
Under 16s: FREE
