Sat 3 May, 2014
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership 
Easter Road, EdinburghSam Stanton (88)
Kris Doolan (8)
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership
Sat 3 May, 2014. Kick Off: - 15:00
Easter Road, Edinburgh
As the season moves into its final stages it’s no understatement to say that every point and every goal could prove decisive come the end of the season. With Hibs on a poor run of form Saturday’s match presents a great opportunity for Thistle to pick up that crucial win and move one step further away from the dreaded playoff spot.
Despite their poor current run, Alan Archibald has not allowed his players to underestimate the Hibs threat and has warned them to be wary of the wounded beast. Archie spoke to ptfc.co.uk today to give us an exclusive preview on tomorrow’s game:
He said: “I think we’re all in the same boat at the moment. It’s very tight in the bottom half at the moment with only two points separating all of us and every point is certainly going to be vital between now and the end of the season. Every manager is under pressure to get that win to move them away from the playoff space sit really is the same for everyone at the moment.
“I thought Hibs did well last week, obviously they lost the game but, if you take the two set plays out of it, it’s probably one of the better performances they’ve had in the past few weeks. It’s really important that we’re not complacent and go into this game as prepared as we possibly can be. Everybody in the bottom half is focussed on finishing as high as possible and that’s exactly what we need to be looking at. They’ve got to win again at some point and we’ve just got to make sure it isn’t against us.
“Everybody’s writing Hibs off this week and that’s what’s worrying me. It’s always difficult playing against teams like that, they’re like wounded animals and you can very often get a powerful reaction from them when everybody is writing them off. It was the same with us at Firhill earlier in the season when we hadn’t got a win the pressure was on but we had to beat someone and in the end it was Aberdeen.”
When it came to team news Archie was still waiting on news from the physio room when it came to a couple of his players but Welsh, Osbourne, O’Donnell and Muirhead all remain side-lined with long term injuries.
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 2 2 7 12
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 10
Kallum Higginbotham 7
Steven Lawless 5
Lyle Taylor 5
Aaron Muirhead 4
Conrad Balatoni 2
Christie Elliott 3
Chris Erskine 2
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair 2
Ross Forbes 1
Gary Fraser 1
Lee Mair 1
Jordan McMillan 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 19th 2014
Partick Thistle 1, St Mirren 1
Hibernian Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 0 5 1 10
Scorers Season 2013-2014
James Collins 6
Liam Craig 6
Jordan Forster 4
Paul Heffernan 4
Michael Nelson 2
Paul Cairney 1
Paul Hanlon 1
Danny Haynes 1
Scott Robertson 1
Samuel Stanton 1
Lewis Stevenson 1
Thomas Taiwo 1
Duncan Watmore 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday April 19th 2014
Hibs 1, Hearts 2
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Saturday March 15th 2014
Partick Thistle 3, Hibernian 1
Teams
Thistle: Gallacher, Taylor-Sinclair, O’Donnell, Balatoni, Doolan, Buaben, Mair, Taylor (Elliott), Fraser, Higginbotham, Erskine (Lawless).
Hibernian: McGivern, Hanlon, Nelson, Cairney (Craig), Collins (Haynes), Taiwo, Watmore, Forster, Stanton, Cummings (Heffernan)
Crowd: 4,448
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday May 3rd 2014
Hibernian v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Match Officials
Referee: Alan Muir
Assistant Referees: Stephen Mitchell and Graeme Stewart
Fourth Official: Craig Charleston
Other Fixtures
St Mirren v Ross County (Saturday)
Hearts v Kilmarnock (Sunday)
Celtic v Aberdeen (Saturday)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Dundee United (Saturday)
Motherwell v St Johnstone (Saturday)
No match report
It was déjà vu for Alan Archibald as his team once again lost a goal in the closing minutes of the game at Easter Road and missed out on what would have been a massive three points. Despite playing well, and developing several promising breaks on the counter during the second half, Thistle were unable to score that vital second goal to kill off the tie. While obviously disappointed not to have taken all three points against a 10 man Hibs Archibald recognised that there were positives to be taken from the game:
“As the away side your main concern is obviously not to lose the game but being one up with so little time left on the clock we’ve really got to be looking to win it here and, to come away with a point, really feels like a defeat today. There was a point at the end of the first half where Erskine was through on goal and I think from there we should be looking to go two up and kill off the tie but it wasn’t to be and they’ve nicked one in the last couple of minutes which is a real blow.
“We told the boys at half time that they would throw everything at us which they absolutely did. We thought we would be able to use our pace and nick something on the counter attack and we did create chances but we just weren’t clinical enough and a bit careless with the final pass. It’s frustrating in the end, we know Hibs are the home team and they’re fighting for their lives just like we are but, at the end of the day, we have to be defending better and seeing games out.”
Thistle’s in form keeper, Paul Gallacher, pulled off a string of world class saves in both halves which didn’t go unnoticed by his manager.
“I thought Gal was fantastic today, Hibs are very good at set pieces and they throw everything on top of you but he did incredibly well with everything they threw at us, particularly in the first half. He deserved to have a shut out today and I feel that some of the other players on the pitch should have reacted better in the build up to the goal – especially considering they were down to 10 men.
“Having said that, I thought our midfielders were outstanding today. Gary Fraser, Bannigan and Craigen covered every blade of grass and their energy levels were absolutely fantastic. Prince missed out due to injury today but they covered very well in the centre of the park and gave us a very powerful engine to drive forward with.”
Archie once again faces a selection headache going into the game against Hearts on Wednesday with both Doolan and Mair being subbed before half time with injuries. It’s going to be an anxious wait to see if either will be available for the midweek trip back through to Edinburgh.
“We’ll know more come Monday, thankfully with Doolan it doesn’t look like he’s dislocated or fractured anything and I think he’s just landed on it awkwardly after he’s scored the goal so hopefully he’ll be ok for Hearts. Lee has just caught a sore one on his knee in a challenge after a corner so we’ll have to wait and see.”
It isn’t all negative and Alan recognises that a point at Easter Road at any other point in the season would normally be a good result.
“The main thing is we haven’t lost it today. It’s still a positive result, not as positive as it might have been, but we can go into the Hearts game with confidence and hopefully get the three points that will see us safe before the last game of the season.”
