Saturday 20th August, 2016 at 12:05pm
Thistle return to Ladbrokes Premiership action tomorrow with a long trip north to Aberdeen having not been in action since the Betfred Cup disappointment against Dundee United. Ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Alan Archibald to get his thoughts on the tough trip ahead.
“The squad are all raring to go after not having a game last weekend. We gave them the weekend off to allow them a bit of rest ahead of this week of preparation, while myself and Scott Paterson travelled up to watch the Aberdeen v Hearts game at Pittodrie.
“We’ve watched Aberdeen a number of times already this season and we know they are a strong powerful side with a number of threats that can hurt us. They have recruited very well during the summer and they’ve added a number of quality players to their side.”
Ten days have passed since the Betfred Cup defeat to Dundee United and the gaffer is sure his squad are over the hurt of cup elimination.
“It’s been a long ten days since that game at Tannadice but we are all focussed on Aberdeen. We watched it back over with the players and they are all well aware of how poor a performance it was. When we returned to training on Monday, it was a fresh start and we were putting all our efforts into getting ready for the trip to Pittodrie.”
Each of Thistle’s last two trips have resulted in the side gathering a point in a 0-0 draw, something that Archie is hoping will provide inspiration for the players.
“We know that we will have to be at our best to get anything from the match. We’ve shown in each of the last two games at Pittodrie what we can get if we apply ourselves correctly in the game. We’ve know that on our day we can go and compete with Aberdeen. We’ve managed to get draws in each of the last couple of games up there and we’re looking to take it one step further by grabbing a win on Saturday.”
Stuart Bannigan underwent surgery on his knee earlier this week and the Jags midfielder has begun the road to recovery.
“Stuart had an operation on his knee on Thursday morning and will now begin the rehabilitation process. It’s been a frustrating time for Stuart but now he has got the operation he can focus on recovery. When he initially got the injury in March we took the best advice we could get in Scotland and it was decided that he didn’t need surgery then. He’s now had the operation and Stuart has the drive and determination, both on and off the pitch, to come back stronger than before.”
Finally we asked the gaffer for his team news.
“Tomas Cerny had been struggling with his foot so that weekend rest helped him immeasurably. He’s trained all week so hopefully he’ll be back in contention for Saturday. Liam Lindsay also missed the Dundee United game but he’s been back in training as well, so we’re hopefully going to be at full strength with the only players missing being those who are long term injured.”
