Friday 19th September, 2014 at 6:52pm
On Friday night Thistle failed to push on from the excellent win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle when, for the second time at home this season, they let a one goal lead slip before conceding an injury time winner.
It was hugely frustrated Alan Archibald then that [link:HOME] spoke to after the final whistle.
“Obviously the way that the game ended was just awful for us with us losing a goal in the last minute but I did think that there were positives to take from the first half performance. We spoke before the game about the fact that St Mirren had to win a game eventually but I thought that we reacted well to that situation. We started the game really well , we were the better team and I thought that we controlled the game and created a lot of chances.”
Thistle had been in control up to up to St Mirren’s equaliser on the hour mark which almost changed the pattern of the game completely.
Said Alan;
“That’s what goals do. If we take our chances and go 2-0 up then it is a different game but they got their goal and hats off to them, they probably started the second half the better, and they kicked on from their goal while we took a bit of time to settle after that.”
Alan continued;
“If truth be told we simply gave the ball away far too often in the second half. Our players who are good on the ball and can hurt teams and can look after the ball didn’t do so and the turn overs were far too many for our liking. I don’t know if that was done to an eagerness to get on the ball and get forward as quickly as possible but we gave the ball away far too often in the middle area of the pitch where if we take care of the ball we can go and counter attack on them.”
There was more than just a hint of controversy surrounding the penalty award that gave St Mirren their late winner and we asked the manager how he had viewed the incident.
“I’m more angry with the free kick leading up to it. I thought it was a terrible decision and I felt the referee made a few of them throughout the game. It was a very soft free kick where I think Conrad just goes and wins the ball. When the ball goes into the box Abdul reacts and his hands are up in the air in front of him. It’s one of those things; he’s a yard away and there isn’t much he can do about it. Yes, they can say that his hands shouldn’t be up there but he probably loses his balance otherwise. Kenny McLean doesn’t miss many from the spot, he scored with a penalty here last season, so we kind of knew what was coming when the penalty was given. It’s a really sore one to take with it coming in the last minute of the game. ”
We are back here on Tuesday with St Mirren again the opposition, this time in the League Cup
“That should be an interesting one” said Alan before continuing:
“There were enough positives to take from tonight’s game going into Tuesday’s match. I think we know that we can go and hurt St Mirren when we are at our best and when we move the ball quickly but equally we know that if we don’t do that then they can hurt us and that’s what happened tonight.”
Will the manager be making changes for Tuesday’s game?
“We’ll see what the next couple of days bring with injuries, I think we’ve a couple of knocks from tonight’s game so we’ll need to wait and see on that front.”
It was injury that kept Dan Seaborne out of the side on Friday as the manager confirmed.
“He got injured in training on Thursday when he went over his ankle. These things happen but it was frustrating although I felt that Aaron Muirhead came in and did okay albeit we lost a poor goal but it was the defence as a whole that lost the goal. We don’t know how long Dan will be out for but hopefully it won’t be for too long.”
