Sat 6 February, 2016
William Hill Scottish Cup 
Tannadice Park, Dundee.Scott Fraser 85′
William Hill Scottish Cup
Sat 6 February, 2016. Kick Off: - 15:00
Tannadice Park, Dundee.
Summary
The journey to Tannadice is one that Thistle fans have made already this season, with Kris Doolan’s goal giving Alan Archibald’s side a much desired three points in December. Thistle fans approaching Tannadice may also pass Dens Park, home of Dundee, with both grounds sitting a stone’s throw away from each other.
Entry
The travelling Thistle support will be located in the Jerry Kerr Stand with tickets for both the upper and lower tier selling well from the Firhill offices. You can still pop up to the office until 5pm this evening to get your ticket in advance, but a cash gate will operate on the day. The view from the stand is reasonable with nothing blocking the action, although the near touchline isn’t visible from some seats. If you intend on going to the game simply to stare at the management team of Alan Archibald and Scott Paterson I’m afraid you can’t see the dugouts.
Entry Prices:
£15- Adults and Full Time Students
£12 – Concessions(Under 18s, Over 65s)
Travel
Train
There is a train every hour that will take you to the City of Discovery. Trains take around an hour and 20 minutes are direct from Glasgow Queen Street. The walk to the stadium is a long one so it may be better to get a taxi to the ground from the station.
Supporters Bus
CITY CENTRE BUS:
Pick Up:
Q Club: 11:20
Station Bar: 11:30
Non members welcome please call 07979496154 to book.
JORDANHILL BUS:
Pick Up:
Jordanhill: 12:30
Thornwood Bar: 12:35
Prices: £18 for adults. £9 for concessions.
Bookings are essential. Contact Alistair on 07817612563 or .
General Enquiries: contact Iain on 07779668357
NORTH WEST BUS:
Pick Up:
Milngavie Station: 12:00
Esquire House: 12:15
Maryhill Community Hall: 12:30
Prices: £17 for adults. £10.50 for concessions(School aged children, unwaged adults, senior citizend & matriculated students)
Car
If you are driving to Dundee then you will need to find some on street parking. The old car park behind the ground is now housing and the parking there is residents only. You should be able to find a space up a side street but prepare to have to look for one and face a walk to the ground.
Pubs & Eating
There are a couple of pubs around the ground. The Centenary Bar is walkable and located on Clepington Road. Eating places are limited around the ground so you may have to branch off into the City centre where you will find all your usual city centre eating options and a number of pubs.
Ptfc.co.uk caught up with Manager, Alan Archibald ahead of a Scottish Cup tie against Dundee United. We began by reflecting on Tuesday’s win over Motherwell.
“It was massive to get the win on Tuesday night. It was a six pointer with Motherwell being around us in the table. All the games against sides close to us are massive and we’ll take the confidence from the result into Saturday’s game. “
There was more contract extension joy for Alan as Callum Booth was the latest to sign on for next season.
“Callum’s flew right under the radar for us this season. He’s played every single minute of every game which is something that is pretty rare these days. He has been outstanding for us this season and we’re delighted to have him tied up for next season. He’s been a great player for us in an attacking sense as well as being very solid defensively.”
It’s a rest from league business as Thistle look to reach the quarter finals for the first time since 2007/08 and Alan has fond memories of his cup exploits as a player.
“The Scottish Cup is always a great tournament to be involved in. We’ve seen in the last few years that so-called smaller clubs have done well in the tournament and we’re looking to make sure that this year is the year we take our chances and have a run in the competition.
“I was lucky enough to play in the semi-final in 2002, and I’m wanting my players to have that same experience as I did. We know we face a very difficult task to make it into the quarter finals but we are confident that we can go to Tannadice and progress. “
Thistle were scheduled to play United last weekend before the weather intervened, and Alan Archibald’s side will be well prepared when they take to the field tomorrow.
“Dundee United will still be on a high after their victory over Kilmarnock and they’ve now had a two week rest so we know they’ll come at us right from the start. We’ve watched their last few games and had the chance to assess their strengths and weaknesses to bring about a game plan that we think will give us the best chance of success against them. Having said that we’ll still have to be ready right from the first whistle to match their work rate and energy. “
Finally, we concluded with some team news.
“Aidan Nesbitt and Antonio German both come into the squad for tomorrow. Antonio had a good run out in the Development League on Wednesday, playing 60 minutes, so he’s getting back to match sharpness. Aidan played with Celtic’s development squad on Monday so he’ll be ready to go. Mustapha Dumbuya missed out on Tuesday through injury, but we’re hopeful he’ll make it for Saturday. Gary Fraser and Mathias Pogba both appeared as substitutes on Tuesday and neither suffered any reactions, so they will remain in contention for Saturday. “
Thistle travelled to Tannadice to take on Dundee United in the 5th round of the Scottish Cup with Alan Archibald’s side looking to make the Quarter Final stage of the tournament for the first time since 2007/08.
Manager Alan Archibald sprang a tactical surprise pre-match by reverting to a 3-5-2 system for the first time this season. Frederic Frans and Dan Seaborne were joined in defence by Liam Lindsay, the young defender having served his two match ban. Gary Miller and Callum Booth were the fullbacks in the system with the regular midfield combination of Abdul Osman, Stuart Bannigan and Sean Welsh comprising the heart of the side’s midfield. Steven Lawless was tasked with the job of providing support to Kris Doolan as Thistle looked to get the goals needed for cup progression.
Thistle took a while to settle into the game, perhaps the unfamiliarity of their new formation taking some time to get adjusted to. United took advantage of the early spell in the game. From an early corner Donaldson had the first opportunity of the game, but his header sailed over the crossbar.
Thistle were slowly growing into the game and a couple of early opportunities from Welsh were the first indications of Thistle as an attacking force.
After 18 minutes, John Rankin had an effort deflected behind for a corner after a succession of Thistle blunders as they failed to clear their lines on several occasions. In a half of few chances, Sean Welsh came closest to giving Thistle the lead. A Callum Booth cross evaded everyone and Welsh flung himself at the ball, only to miss by a fraction. Any sort of contact towards the United goal would surely have resulted in a goal.
With time running down in the first half, Tomas Cerny made his first stop of the game, getting down quickly to deny a low angled Simon Murray effort.
United started the second half quickly, with Murray having an effort blocked by Lindsay with just over sixty seconds on the clock.
Similar to the first half, Thistle grew into the half and started to dominate the game. Miller was getting forward strongly and had a half-hearted appeal for a penalty after his cross struck the hand of a United defender.
Thistle forced a succession of corner, the third of which saw United break quickly. John Rankin got to the bye-line and drilled a cross along the fact of the Thistle goal, but Simon Murray was unable to turn the ball home at the back post.
Thistle, who by this point had introduced Mathias Pogba and Gary Fraser to the action, were struggling in the final third in a match where there wasn’t an abundance of quality in the play.
David Amoo had the best opportunity to win the game for Thistle when a simple ball into the box found him clean through. With Kawashima advancing quickly, the winger was unable to direct the ball goalwards to take full advantage of the opportunity.
There was to be a match winning goal in this game but disappointingly for Thistle it was to come at the other end. Blair Spittal retrieved a Paul Dixon cross before linking up with Scott Fraser who curled a shot into the far corner of the net.
With just under five minutes for Thistle to grab a leveller, Gary Fraser took the challenge to United with a rampaging run but his effort from distance was off target. With four minutes of injury time on the clock for Thistle to hit back, the side tried hard to grab a replay inducing leveller. Despite a succession of balls into the box, Kawashima and the United defence held firm and it will be the Dundee club who take a place in Monday’s Quarter Final draw.
Thistle boss, Alan Archibald, was visibly disappointed when he spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly after his Thistle side were put out of the William Hill Scottish Cup by a late Dundee United goal.
“It’s certainly a very sore one to take, especially given the late goal. We were on the right end of one of those on Tuesday night but it’s never nice when a goal like that costs you a place in the next round of the cup.
“I don’t think either team really deserved to win that one to be honest. It looked like a draw all day and there wasn’t a lot of quality going forward for either team. I thought our defence was strong and played well right up until we conceded the goal. We gave the ball away in a bad area and, to be fair to United, they scored with a bit of real quality.”
Thistle changed their shape to play a three man defence but Archibald didn’t think that was the reason for the defeat.
“We changed the shape a bit today to combat the different way United have been playing. I thought the change helped us and allowed us to deal with their two boys up front but I was verydisappointed with how we were going forward as we never tested their goalkeeper enough.
“I thought we had built a bit of momentum just before we madethe changes but then it filtered away a bit and I think everyone was expecting a replay.
“The change in formation is something we are quite comfortable with. It’s something we can use as the boys adapted to it really well. We haven’t had a lot of time to work on it but I think we have the personnel to do it now. The key will be making sure we work on those forward areas as there wasn’t enough goal threat there.”
Although the defeat means the team’s full focus will now be onthe Ladbrokes Premiership Archibald didn’t try and hide how disappointed he was to be out of the cup.
“We have put a lot of negative records to bed in the last two or three seasons but we have never put a decent cup run together and that is something I really regret and want to improve. We don’t want to be known as a team who gets put out of these competitions early and we want to put our bad record in the knockout competitions to bed as soon as possible.
“It’s all very well us saying that but we’re now out of both the cups once again so we’ll have to wait until next season to have another go. It’s a real shame because I think we had a real chance this season. We can’t think about that now though and must focus on our next game which is Hearts in the Premiership.”
