Sunday 23rd November, 2014 at 6:58pm
“It has been quite a long two weeks for us, which can be a good or a bad thing. It’s good because a couple of guys who picked up knocks have had a bit of recovery time and have been able to get back training – they might have missed out if we were straight back into it. On the other hand it’s not ideal because you do lose a bit of the momentum from the win against St Mirren.
“It can be quite hard as a manger as you have no focus for the Saturday, nothing to aim for. That can make it a bit difficult to keep the guys motivated.”
Among those that had picked up knocks was club captain, Sean Welsh. Sean, making his first start for a year suffered a heavy challenge and had to come off at half time. The manager is happy with how his recovery is going though and things perhaps aren’t as bad as they at first seemed.
“Sean’s back jogging which is great because, at one point, we did fear the worst for him. The good thing is it wasn’t his groin, it was just the impact from the tackle. He had a few heavy challenges on him and it was one after five minutes that did the damage. We’ve had him scanned and he’s absolutely fine and it will likely only be three or four weeks he spends out.”
The last time playing Aberdeen at Firhill resulted in Thistle’s first home win of the season and that is something that will give the team confidence according to Archie.
“Our home form has been much better this season, that combined with the win against St Mirren gives us a lot of confidence. We know it will be a big ask to go and beat Aberdeen who are a very very good side but we are confident we can go and do exactly that.
“We owe our supporters a performance, the last time we played them, up at Pittodrie, we never really turned up. We didn’t put enough into the game offensively, sat back and showed them too much respect.
“There is no doubt that teams can go and hurt Aberdeen. They have played a little bit more openly this year and that is something we’ll be looking to exploit. We know their threats and we’ve seen them play plenty of times so there’s no excuse. The big thing is that they’re consistent and we’ll need to be on top of our game to get a result.”
Consistency has so far been elusive for Thistle this season and Archibald knows that it is that which can make the difference between a top six and bottom six side.
“I really think that can make the difference. If you put a few wins together you start to climb that table very quickly and that’s what we’re looking to do all the time. That being said, it isn’t easy because just about every team can beat every other team at any given stage in this league.
“The win against St Mirren means we can start looking up rather than down which is exactly what we want to be doing. Hopefully we can add to that come Sunday.”
Alan won’t be far away from having a full complement of players to choose from on Sunday with only Jordan McMillan (suspension) and Sean Welsh (knee) unavailable.
