Saturday 23rd March, 2013 at 9:34pm
A little later than normal after a game [link:HOME] caught up with manager Alan Archibald to reflect back on what had been a couple of eventual days for the freshly installed permanent manager of Partick Thistle.
As Alan reveals the events of Friday afternoon took him a little by surprise.
“The news came out of the blue quite late on Friday. I think it was about 4pm that it all happened. I knew that David Beattie had been out of the country and was coming back on Friday morning so it might have been something to do that. It’s an honour and a privilege to be named as Partick Thistle manager and I’m absolutely delighted to have been given the job. It’s been a great weekend.”
Alan continued;
“I was a little worried that after being given the job that we might end up getting a bad result on Saturday; things sometimes work out that way. The reverse actually proved to be the case. I felt that we started the game really well and were excellent for the first five minutes. We weren’t so good in the ten minutes after that but I think that the penalty helped settle us down. Against the team that are third in the league we were excellent. Some of the movement and interchange of play was fantastic. I couldn’t be more pleased with the way that we played.”
There was, however, one thing that the manager, and the players; were disappointed about.
“It’s just been a bit picky but we were disappointed to have conceded a goal. It wasn’t a wonder goal that we conceded either. Conrad simply slipped and that gave Livingston their chance. I suppose if you are going to concede a goal then you want to do it in a game where you score six goals of your own but we really wanted to keep another clean sheet.”
The manager went on to explain his thinking behind some of the substitutions that he made during the game.
“We took Steven Craig off at half-time as he had been feeling his groin in the ten minutes or so prior to half-time. He had also picked up a wee knock in training. So it was combination of giving him a rest and a precaution against injury that we took him off. It was the same with Sean Welsh who picked up a wee injury during the warm up.”
Alan was happy with the contribution that his substitutes made.
“It was always our plan to give Kris Doolan some game time and I felt that he looked really sharp during his time on the pitch. I thought all the subs looked sharp when they came on. Everyone I feel realises that it is a squad game. Players are naturally disappointed if they don’t start but there is no anger from them; they just get on with things.”
James Craigen is one player that has had to wait patiently for his chance in the team but he did his chances of establishing himself in the team no harm at all with a performance yesterday that pleased his manager.
“You can really see the benefit of the time that James spent on loan with Forfar Athletic where he was playing games. It was good too to have Paul Paton back in the team. Paul hasn’t played much football in the last month but he made a big contribution. We look as if we will be close to having a full squad for Wednesday’s game with Cowdenbeath and it’ll be no easy decision to decide who will play.”
