Tuesday 23rd February, 2016 at 3:41pm
After a very impressive and resolute performance from his Thistle side, Alan Archibald was a very satisfied man when he spoke to ptfc.co.uk after Tuesday night’s victory over St Johnstone.
“I certainly thought we grew into the game. I don’t think you’re ever sure how a team will go out and play when there has been such a gap between fixtures but I thought we handled it very well against a strong side.
“We showed real drive and determination in parts of that game today and I think we probably edged the match – although it was certainly a tight contest. As the game went on we wereable to get our creative guys on the ball and that made a big difference in the closing stages for us.”
Archibald set his stall out from the very start, playing a creative, attacking team and it was a move he feels was required to break down a stubborn defence.
“We gave Aidan Nesbitt his debut today and I thought he didwell. Like the rest of the team he took a little time to work himself into the match but after that he worked the ball into great areas and was full of good running. He’s certainly a talent and hopefully he can do well for us between now and the end of the season.
“We needed to make sure we got service in behind Pogba today and that’s what we thought both Aidan and Christie Elliott did for us today. I thought Christie was outstanding today and looked so powerful on the ball. He’s going to be like a new signing for us now he’s back fully fit and we’re going to need our full squad to deal with the run of games we’re going to have between now and the end of the season.”With the game still locked at 0-0 on the 70 minute mark, Doolan replaced Pogba and made an instant impact, scoring the opener after just 43 seconds. David Amoo then replaced Nesbitt nine minutes later and added the second rounding off a very successful set of substitutes for the Jags boss.
“I wish it was always that easy! We now have a squad of players where we have real options coming off the bench, players who can come on and really hurt opposition players. Kris and David are two players who are always ready to make a difference and they showed that tonight with two excellent goals.
“We need to take the momentum from this game into the rest of our fixtures, we now have two games next week including another against tonight’s opponents so we need to focus and make sure we pick up as many points as we can. I would love to say we are looking up the way now but the reality is that a couple of bad results and we’re right back down the wrong end of the table. We’ll keep working hard and make sure we do what we can to take as many points as we can from our games in hand.”
