Tuesday 21st July, 2015 at 2:26pm
As Thistle prepare for their first pre-season match at Firhill we caught up with manager, Alan Archibald, ahead of kick off to find out how the preparations were going.
“It has been a really hard pre-season so far but we have eased off on last season a little bit to minimise risk of injury. A lot of teams focus on running during pre-season but we’re always keen to get the boys with a ball at their feet as early as possible.
“We’ve worked the boys hard and I think that showed in the game against Falkirk. We had flown up late on the Friday night and I think you saw that tiredness on Saturday. Hopefully tonight you’ll see a different more energetic Thistle.”
For Archibald pre-season is all about fitness and this was something he was keen to get over ahead of tonight’s clash with Wigan.
“I think some people read too much into pre-season games in terms of the results. For us as a management team it’s all about making sure the players get enough minutes and their fitness is where it should be. That’s why you saw a couple of players playing out of position at the weekend, we really just need to get them time on the park before the season starts.”
Archie added to his first team squad with yesterday’s signing of experienced defender, Gary Miller, a player he was pleased to get over the line.
“Gary gives us a bit of experience at the back and I think will complement the other players we have there very well. He’s comfortable playing our style of football and has proved that during the time he spent with the squad down in England.
“We’re still probably looking for a couple of extra bodies to strengthen us a bit but our squad is starting to take shape. The focus now is to make sure as many of our players as possible are fit come the beginning of the season.”
