Sat 12 September, 2015
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership 
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow.
Greg Stewart 77′
SPFL Ladbrokes Premiership
Sat 12 September, 2015. Kick Off: - 15:00
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow.
Thistle return to action tomorrow to take on Dundee in another Ladbrokes Premiership match. Ptfc.co.uk caught up with Alan Archibald to find out how the international break went.
“It’s a good break to have as it lets the players recharge the batteries a little and allows the injuries to clear up a little. It’s frustrating to have it when we’re on back to back defeats, but there is nothing we can do about the timing of it.
“The players were down in the first couple of days of training, which is normal given they lost the last league game, but they soon perked up again and have been back to their usual selves in training. We gave the players a couple of days off, which we always do, to give them a bit of a break and a chance for the English lads to go back down south and see family. You get a different reaction from it, each time you do it but everything is now geared towards Dundee on Saturday.”
Thistle’s fixtures with Dundee were close affairs with two stoppage time goals for the Dens Park side, denying Thistle on a couple of occasions.
“The games against Dundee last season were strange in that we had a lot of the play, but we didn’t win any of the three games. Paul’s sides always have a never say die fighting spirit about them and that was proven by the way they scored late goals in two of the three games against us last season. We’re aware of the threat they pose, but equally they have weaknesses and we’ll be looking to exploit them on Saturday.”
Thistle have had a tough start to the season but Alan Archibald is confident it won’t affect his players.
“We’re used to having hype about not having done this or that, as we’ve had it in the last two seasons, firstly with the lack of a home win in 2013/14 and latterly the absence of consecutive wins last season, so it’s something we’re very used to.
“We’ve had a tough start where things haven’t quite went for us. A couple of games we haven’t been at our best and we need to make sure that they are the exception rather than the rule. We now go into five winnable games and we’re looking to push on and move up the table”
It’s almost a full squad for Alan Archibald to pick for ahead of tomorrow’s game.
“Christie is, obviously, still unavailable and Mathias Pogba is still feeling his hamstring but we’ll give him every opportunity to take to the pitch.”
Thistle returned to Ladbrokes Premiership action after the international break and faced a Dundee side occupying sixth placed in the table. Paul Hartley’s side were formidable opponents for Thistle last season and this game looked to be no different.
Alan Archibald made four changes to the side which lost to Aberdeen with Mustapha Dumbuya and Robbie Muirhead came into the side to make their debuts while Ryan Stevenson and Kris Doolan found themselves promoted from the substitute’s bench.
Thistle started the game with a high tempo and immediately imposed themselves on their opponents. A succession of early corners lead to Robbie Muirhead enjoying a break of the ball inside the box, but his shot on the turn was straight at Bain.
Dundee won themselves an early corner and from it Thistle nearly manufactured an early lead. Low’s delivery was hacked away giving Doolan the chance to counter. He played the ball to Muirhead who slotted in the Thistle number nine who fired inches past the post with Bain well beaten in the Dundee goal.
It was Doolan, causing a menace against the Dundee defence that almost opened the scoring just after 10 minutes in. Lindsay flicked on Stevenson’s cross and was met Doolan who smashed the bar with an overhead kick. Thistle were dominating Dundee in the early stages with Muirhead and Dumbuya looking particularly impressive on their debut.
Dundee, however, were a dangerous threat on the counter and when a Stewart cut back found Konrad at the back post, Thistle were fortunate that he only hit the side netting.
After a frantic start the game descended into a midfield slog with chances beginning to dry up and it was Dundee turn to miss a golden chance as Lindsay was punished for slackness on the ball but Low fires wide of goal.
As the game began to race end to end, Stevenson was played in by Muirhead only to see a thumping shot smash off the post and bounce out towards him. Dundee broke away again and only excellent tracking from Robbie Muirhead denied Irvine a clear opportunity from the edge of the six yard box.
Dundee started the second half the stronger and had the ball in the net when Stewart slid a ball through to Ross to fire home; the linesman’s flag brought the celebrations to a premature halt. Dundee were coming more and more into the ascendancy and Irvine forced a full length save from Cerny with an excellent effort from the edge of the box as the game entered it’s final half hour.
Dumbuya was next to create a good opportunity for Thistle as he whipped a cross into the box for Stevenson to head goalwards. With Bain beaten, the attacker could only watch on as his header smashed off the bar and bounced away from goal.
It was looking increasingly likely that a single goal would win the game and it was Dundee who got it with just under 15 minutes remaining. Muirhead’s pass for Doolan was cut out by Thomas Konrad, and in a chillingly similar scenario from the last meeting against the Dens Park side, Dundee broke away. McGinn played the ball wide to Stewart who collected it in his own half. He ran the length of the Thistle half before cutting inside Booth to curl a low effort past Cerny.
Dundee had a couple of chances to extend their lead through Loy when he flicked a cross over a cross from Calder before he had the ball in the back of the net, but was ruled out for offside.
Thistle fired in numerous crosses as they looked to get level but the Dundee backline held out firm and went back to Tayside with all three points.
It was a frustrated Alan Archibald that spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly after the full time whistle this afternoon.
“I’m deeply disappointed not to have got at least a point from today’s game. The lads played really well, particularly in the first 30 minutes, but we’ve been punished for not taking our chances, it’s as simple as that.
“First half we played the way we wanted. We were playing at a high tempo and created numerous chances, Doolan has fired just wide and hit the bar. Stevenson has smashed the woodwork. Muirhead has been unfortunate with a couple of efforts but we need to take one of them.
”It’s clear that Alan is happy with the performance of the player’s but he knows that goals are needed to get results.
“It’s summed up our season so far. We’ve had chances and just not taken them. We’ve been punished for it in the past and we need to learn quickly. We’ve hit the woodwork three times today and those sorts of things don’t go for you when you are struggling. We’ll need to work hard to get ourselves out this though.
“All our good play came from Ryan Stevenson and Robbie Muirhead. They showed signs of a blossoming partnership today and we hope that is something that can be built on going forward.”
Thistle sit bottom of the league at this early stage but Alan isn’t getting too concerned yet.
“We’ve dropped to the bottom of the league today so it’s hard to take any positives from the game. We’re going to have to work hard in training and start to prepare. We’ll go through the footage on Monday and analyse the game as a whole to find out
where we can improve and start working for Ross County next Saturday.”
