Thursday 27th October, 2016 at 2:30pm
Sean Welsh was selected as the Jagzone man of the match for his excellent performance against Dundee on Wednesday night. The Thistle number four settled quickly into his groove and was metronomic for much of the game, dictating the play with a fantastic range of passing throughout.
Sean spoke to ptfc.co.uk on the way back down the road and gave his thoughts on his side’s first win since the opening day of the season.
“It was a great win for us. We knew it was going to be a real battle up there as both teams were properly scrapping. We knew a win was really important tonight and getting the second goal really killed the game. It’s a fantastic result and hopefully one we can build on from here.
“We’ve seen after the game that a lot of the teams around us have won and it just goes to show how important the victory was for us. It lifts us out of the bottom two and gives us a real platform for the games coming up. It has been tight margins in most of our games this season but results haven’t fallen for us – that just makes the three points tonight all the sweeter though.”
Alan Archibald named an unchanged starting 11, choosing to stick with a 3-5-2 formation – a system Welsh feels plays to his strengths.
“It’s a formation that works well for the team. I think it gives us a bit more solidity at the back but also a really strong platform to build on in midfield. It gave Ryan Edwards and I a real chance to use our energy and get about the park and also keeps two strikers on the pitch which gives a great range of options further forward.
“The confidence was right up today and I think that helped because we certainly didn’t feel the need to drop back in the same way we have in recent weeks. It’s tough when you go through a run of conceding late goals and it’s easy to drop deep without realising what you’re doing but we got the second goal today and that settled all the nerves and let us go out and play.
“We know we need to keep pushing on and taking the game to teams when it’s still 1-0. It’s a tricky league and unless you kill games off there is always the chance a side will come and bite you in the closing stages.”
Thistle now have St Johnstone to look towards this Saturday and Sean is keen to make amends for one of the poorest performances of the season the last time the two sides met.
“We’ve got a good platform to build on now and we need to use it. The last time we played them we were poor and we want to go out and make amends for that in no uncertain terms this Saturday.”
