Tue 8 March, 2016
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership 
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow.Steven Lawless 60′
Andrew Considine 74′
Simon Church 76′
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership
Tue 8 March, 2016. Kick Off: - 19:45
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow.
Thistle are busy preparing for a tough fixture against Aberdeen tonight as the run of games continues to come thick and fast. Ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Alan Archibald after training on Monday to catch up on how the feeling is in the camp.
“The players are confident and raring to get back onto the pitch. On Saturday we were extremely disappointed not to come out of the game with at least a point. I felt we had the better chances, particularly at 0-0, but we didn’t take them and were punished for a lapse at a set piece.
“We stressed to the players after the game that we can match the elite sides in the league, but we know that incredibly fine margins will decide games. We have to continue to be incredibly resilient in the defensive areas and if we get clear cut opportunities, we have to punish teams with them and see how they react. We’re at a stage in the season now where teams are getting nervy at going a goal down because they are chasing titles, European slots and battling off relegation. The pressure can do funny things to teams and we have to exploit it.”
Aberdeen are sitting in 2nd in the table looking to chase down Celtic, and the gaffer is ready the Dons to come out all guns blazing.
“Aberdeen and Celtic are now in a mini-season of their own. They know they need to win every game to end the season as champions and we know they’ll both come out firing to get the game won as quickly as possible.
“Aberdeen are missing key players in Pawlett and Rooney but the players who will replace them are also quality players so we can’t afford to take them lightly. They’ve been consistently good all season and we’ll have to be at our best to get anything from the game. We were outstanding at Pittodrie in December, and got a point, so we’ll have to, at least, match that performance on Tuesday night.”
The one negative from Saturday’s game was the injury to Stuart Bannigan and we asked the gaffer how Thistle’s influential midfielder was recovering.
“We’re still not 100% on the diagnosis of Stuart. He’ll go for a scan today[Monday] and we’ll get the results back at some point this evening[Monday evening]. Stuart will be a massive miss to the side and we hope the injury isn’t too serious, but he’ll almost certainly miss the Aberdeen game. He’s still in a bit of pain and we’ll just have to look after him.
“We’ve got a few players with knocks and are struggling to make it. That’s what happens when you play some many games in such a short space of time, the players don’t get any time to rest because the spell is so gruelling. One player who will return to the squad is Frederic Frans who returned to training on Monday and he brings a bit of defensive depth to the squad.”
Aberdeen were the latest visitors to Firhill as Thistle looked to secure more precious Premiership points in the quest to catch the sides above them in the league. There was a chill in the air at Firhill as kick-off approached with the Dons keen to pick up the points in order to threaten Celtic at the summit of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.
Manager Alan Archibald made two changes to the side which lost narrowly against Hearts on Saturday afternoon; one enforced through injury, the other a tactical switch. Stuart Bannigan, so influential for the side this season, had limped off with an injury on Saturday and instead of being available for selection on the pitch, he took his place in the Thistle commentary box to bring audio analysis to the proceedings. His place was taken by Gary Fraser, who was looking to re-capture the form he had shown earlier in the season before injury and bereavement so cruelly denied him much needed game time. In defence, Christie Elliott replaced Gary Miller as Thistle looked to match up against the potent Aberdeen attack throughout the game. For Aberdeen, the influential Jonny Hayes returned from injury and was fit to start the game.
Aberdeen looked in determined mood early on, but it was Thistle who looked the more dangerous side with David Amoo probing in the early stages. From the first corner of the game, Gary Fraser found Sean Welsh who fired high over the bar from the edge of the box.
With the rain beginning to tumble Hayes, returning from injury for the visitors, was looking to use the surface to his advantage but his 25 yard effort lashed high off Tomas Cerny’s bar.
The opening 20 minutes didn’t have anything in way of real goalscoring threat but Kenny McLean had the game’s first real opportunity. The ball skidded off the surface, allowing the late run from the midfielder to get in behind the defence. Under pressure from Liam Lindsay, he could only fire tamely into the arms of Tomas Cerny.
Gary Fraser and Mathias Pogba were linking up well in the advanced areas of the pitch and after the returning midfielder curled a really good ball through to the striker, the ball just wouldn’t fall kindly for Pogba to bury past Brown.
Gary Fraser had Thistle’s best opportunity to open the scoring in the first half when Sean Welsh sprayed the ball into his path, after benefiting from an Aberdeen mistake. Under significant pressure from the advancing goalkeeper, Fraser could only lift his effort inches over the bar.
Set pieces were proving troublesome for Thistle and after McLean had cleared the Thistle bar with one from 20 yards after 30 minutes, Simon Church got on the end of Hayes free kick to fire a shot against the top of the bar and over for a goal kick.
In an open entertaining game, it was perhaps surprising that the score line remained at 0-0 at the half time interval.
Thistle could sense that they’d get at the Aberdeen defence, but they had to be wary of the threat posed by the Dons. From another dangerous free kick, Sean Welsh was able to clear the ball from inside the six yard box denying Storie the game’s opening goal. The opener did arrive with the hour mark approaching.
Steven Lawless has scored many spectacular goals for Thistle, but this is right up there. He showed good trickery to get space for himself 30 yards from goal. He unleashed an absolute screamer which flew past Brown and into the top corner of the net to give Thistle a lead which they had worked incredibly hard to get.
Amoo was continuing to prove a handful to another left back and from his cross, Pogba nodded goalwards appearing certain to double the lead. The intervention of Scott Brown, who tipped the ball over the bar for a corner, denied Thistle the second goal which may well have proved decisive.
With the game entering the closing stages, Aberdeen didn’t look like breaching Tomas Cerny’s goal, until they did.
A cross from Hayes, was deflected by Dan Seaborne to the back post where it fell for Andrew Considine who was in the right place at the right time to nod the visitor’s level.
No sooner than Aberdeen scored one, than they took the lead. Barry Robson fired a corner into the Thistle penalty area, Simon Church got a run on his marker to plant a header beyond Cerny at the far post.
Thistle had one great chance to grab a leveller, but Doolan’s effort on the turn dragged wide of Simon Brown’s left hand post.
Tomas Cerny adventured into the Aberdeen penalty area in stoppage time as he looked to salvage an unlikely leveller but there was to be no heroics as Aberdeen won a valuable three points to continue their title battle at the top of the league.
Two goals in just under two minutes settled the Ladbrokes Premiership fixture with Aberdeen in the visitors favour. Alan Archibald was a deflated man at full time and believes his side should have got at least a point from the game.
“It’s very hard on the players. We played very well tonight, particularly in the second half and I think the players deserved to pick up something from the game on the basis of their performance.
“We went in front through a wonder goal and we had worked extremely hard to get that strike. Aberdeen showed theirquality to get two goals and that proved to be the difference between the sides.”
Thistle had looked comfortable in their lead before Aberdeen’s quick fire duo and the gaffer was disappointed about the way the lead was relinquished.
“It’s two fast goals. Aberdeen didn’t really look like scoring and then they got one when Considine heads home at the back post. We then conceded a goal from a set piece and we were unable to get back into the game.
“I don’t think the team fell apart, we just conceded a goal from nothing and then were punished immediately after. I thought we had Aberdeen on the ropes and if you can grab the second goal to go two-nil up then you’ve got a very good chance of taking three points.”
Mathias Pogba and Gary Fraser linked up extremely well in the 66 minutes that the duo were on the pitch, providing encouraging signs for Archie.
“Mathias had a great game holding the ball up well and bringing others into play. Gary Fraser was the player we know he can be and he played a couple of excellent balls into the box during the course of the game but we weren’t able to bundle them home.
“It’s a developing partnership and one that we’ll be looking to improve moving forward. Pogba is getting better all the time with games under his belt and he’ll hope to finish the season strongly. Gary hasn’t had many minutes on the pitch and that was why we had to remove him with 20 or so to go. It’ll be a very tired dressing room this evening but the side are back in action on Saturday lunchtime in front of the Sky Sports cameras for the visit of Celtic.
“Everyone in that dressing room is down and deflated at the way the game has panned out. We put an awful lot of effort into that game and there are a number of tired legs in thedressing room.
“We’ve shown again that we can match the top sides in the league and if you take out the two crazy minutes where we conceded goals we did well against a side that are competing for the title. We’ve got to take confidence from the last two games and go out on Saturday and look to turn all our hard work into points.”
