Saturday 22nd October, 2016 at 9:05pm
Partick Thistle’s long run of games without a win continued today as the Firhill side conceded another late equaliser to let a lead slip late on for the third home match in a row. Despite the disappointing result, Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk following the match to offer his thoughts on the day’s game.
First of all, he gave an update on the condition of Liam Lindsay who was stretchered off during the game.
“He had pain in his neck and nowadays we take every precaution. He’s going to the hospital and that’s all we know at this point. I don’t think he was unconscious at any point, it was just a case of our ‘keeper going one way while he was going the other way and they’ve clattered into each other. Fingers crossed that he’s okay.”
Archie believed that Lindsay’s withdrawal from the match was the game changing incident.
“It was in his area of the pitch where we lost the goal, so I think it did affect the game. Taking nothing away from Ziggy Gordon who came on but I think our back three had developed an understanding and if there hadn’t been that disruption we might not have conceded.”
The Jags boss discussed the unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation that he used on the day.
“We changed the shape and it suited us, I thought we played very well. Some of Adam Barton’s play was great and defensively we were comfortable but you can’t dominate for 90 minutes and we didn’t stand up to them when they were in control.”
Archibald was very complimentary of Adam Barton who played his first game in defence since joining Thistle today and looked very strong in that position despite previously playing in the midfield.
“We signed him as both a midfielder and a centre-half. We know that he can do both, he’s comfortable on the ball and he can defend. He’s also a big lad who can dominate aerially. It’s essential that you have players who can adapt, especially when you have a number of injury problems like we do, at the moment.”
Although the end result wasn’t the desired one, the Thistle manager was keen to look at the things the team did well today.
“I think that there were plenty of positives. We only worked on that formation twice this week because of the injuries we’ve had and the question marks regarding who’s going to be fit. Our overall play was good and the defensive unit was strong. We had a number of key players missing and we handled that very well today.”
