Saturday 22nd February, 2014 at 2:43pm
Football managers can be hard to please at times. Yesterday a sparkling second half display saw Thistle see of Aberdeen to the tune of 3-1, with the final score flattering only Aberdeen. However, when speaking to [link:HOME] after the game Alan Archibald wasn’t entirely satisfied by what he had seen from his players in the opening 45 minutes?
“I thought that first we were very poor by our standards. I think you could tell that we hadn’t won at home and that psychologically that has been affecting us. It was a great save from Paul Gallacher at the penalty and that proved to be a turning point for us. Once we got the players in at half-time you saw the real Partick Thistle in the second half. “We were delighted to get in at half-time at 0-0 Aberdeen had another great save from a header. I felt that we were lucky to get in at half-time at 0-0.”
We wondered what Alan had made of the penalty decision?
“I think you are always going to get that against us when the striker goes down. There wouldn’t have been much contact, I wouldn’t imagine, but it always tends to favour the striker in those kind of situations. We were delighted when Paul saved the penalty and we got a bit of luck at the rebound when against Kilmarnock we didn’t.”
Was the manager concerned when Aberdeen had a second penalty appeal not long after the first one?
“I was a bit worried. There were a few contentious decisions about five or ten minutes after the penalty. The referee had some decisions to make and your heart is always in your mouth because you are never quite sure what you are going to get but luckily for us it went in our favour today.”
The manager, although unhappy with the first half display was anything but unhappy with the performance of his players in the second half.
“It wasn’t just the chances that we created. I felt that there was a whole change in their personality. It was the old Partick Thistle, the Partick Thistle that we’ve seen for most of the season. I thought in the first half that they looked a bit scared and afraid of Aberdeen but they didn’t in the second half. In the second half they took the game to Aberdeen and I thought that we deserved the win.”
Alan went on;
“We knew that we could hurt Aberdeen. We said to them last week against Motherwell that we could hurt them if we stayed in the game long enough. We kept our shape today which we needed to because they are a good side. We’ve got players at the top end of the pitch with quality and creativity and we brought them into the game and that was the difference.”
Did running Motherwell so close the week before, albeit in defeat, give the players the confidence and belief that they can beat the better sides in the league?
“You wouldn’t have thought so on the basis of the first half performance but certainly in the second half. They started to realise then that they can hurt teams like this. Yes, they are experienced and organised but we have enough there, enough energy and quality, to hurt these teams.”
Finally in beating Aberdeen that elusive first home league win of the season was recorded. Alan, like all of us, will be delighted that he will no longer have to answer questions about not winning at home.
“Hopefully that helps us mentally and psychologically and we can go and build on that now. The fans have backed us all the way and today I thought they really helped us, especially in the last five or ten minutes.”
