Saturday 3rd May, 2014 at 2:54pm
As the season moves into its final stages it’s no understatement to say that every point and every goal could prove decisive come the end of the season. With Hibs on a poor run of form Saturday’s match presents a great opportunity for Thistle to pick up that crucial win and move one step further away from the dreaded playoff spot.
Despite their poor current run, Alan Archibald has not allowed his players to underestimate the Hibs threat and has warned them to be wary of the wounded beast. Archie spoke to ptfc.co.uk today to give us an exclusive preview on tomorrow’s game:
He said: “I think we’re all in the same boat at the moment. It’s very tight in the bottom half at the moment with only two points separating all of us and every point is certainly going to be vital between now and the end of the season. Every manager is under pressure to get that win to move them away from the playoff space sit really is the same for everyone at the moment.
“I thought Hibs did well last week, obviously they lost the game but, if you take the two set plays out of it, it’s probably one of the better performances they’ve had in the past few weeks. It’s really important that we’re not complacent and go into this game as prepared as we possibly can be. Everybody in the bottom half is focussed on finishing as high as possible and that’s exactly what we need to be looking at. They’ve got to win again at some point and we’ve just got to make sure it isn’t against us.
“Everybody’s writing Hibs off this week and that’s what’s worrying me. It’s always difficult playing against teams like that, they’re like wounded animals and you can very often get a powerful reaction from them when everybody is writing them off. It was the same with us at Firhill earlier in the season when we hadn’t got a win the pressure was on but we had to beat someone and in the end it was Aberdeen.”
When it came to team news Archie was still waiting on news from the physio room when it came to a couple of his players but Welsh, Osbourne, O’Donnell and Muirhead all remain side-lined with long term injuries.
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 2 2 7 12
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 10
Kallum Higginbotham 7
Steven Lawless 5
Lyle Taylor 5
Aaron Muirhead 4
Conrad Balatoni 2
Christie Elliott 3
Chris Erskine 2
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair 2
Ross Forbes 1
Gary Fraser 1
Lee Mair 1
Jordan McMillan 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 19th 2014
Partick Thistle 1, St Mirren 1
Hibernian Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 0 5 1 10
Scorers Season 2013-2014
James Collins 6
Liam Craig 6
Jordan Forster 4
Paul Heffernan 4
Michael Nelson 2
Paul Cairney 1
Paul Hanlon 1
Danny Haynes 1
Scott Robertson 1
Samuel Stanton 1
Lewis Stevenson 1
Thomas Taiwo 1
Duncan Watmore 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 19th 2014
Hibs 1, Hearts 2
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Saturday March 15th 2014
Partick Thistle 3, Hibernian 1
Teams
Thistle: Gallacher, Taylor-Sinclair, O’Donnell, Balatoni, Doolan, Buaben, Mair, Taylor (Elliott), Fraser, Higginbotham, Erskine (Lawless).
Hibernian: McGivern, Hanlon, Nelson, Cairney (Craig), Collins (Haynes), Taiwo, Watmore, Forster, Stanton, Cummings (Heffernan)
Crowd: 4,448
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday May 3rd 2014
Hibernian v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Match Officials
Referee: Alan Muir
Assistant Referees: Stephen Mitchell and Graeme Stewart
Fourth Official: Craig Charleston
Other Fixtures
St Mirren v Ross County (Saturday)
Hearts v Kilmarnock (Sunday)
Celtic v Aberdeen (Saturday)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Dundee United (Saturday)
Motherwell v St Johnstone (Saturday)
