Friday 10th December, 2021 at 4:33pm
The management team’s written previews and reactions are presented by The Jags Trust. You can keep up to date with the latest from The Jags Trust by visiting their website, www.jagstrust.com.
Partick Thistle are aiming to make it a remarkable ten games unbeaten this Saturday as Arbroath visit Maryhill in the cinch Championship. The two sides are separated by goal difference in the league standings with Thistle’s superior goalscoring exploits seeing them sit in fourth place above the Red Lichties. However, it was Dick Campbell’s side who won the last time the sides met, at Gayfield Park in August. Thistle assistant manager Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the game:
“When you’re on an unbeaten run like we’re on at the moment, there’s obviously a good feeling around the club and everyone’s in good spirits in training. We were a little bit disappointed not to get the win against Queen of the South on Saturday but we can’t afford to dwell – we have to put that behind us and get ready for a really tough game against Arbroath.”
Archie spoke a bit more on last weekend’s draw with Queen of the South, telling us there was a feeling among the squad that they could have got all three points after an improved second half performance.
“They made it very difficult for us in the first half but we were much better after half-time. Brian Graham came on and I think we were able to move the ball up the pitch a bit quicker because of that. Early on we weren’t finding the space we needed to play attacking football but that space started to open up a bit more later on.
“Brian had a good chance, Kyle had a shot just past the post and Ross MacIver had an opening but it wasn’t to be. On another day we probably take one of the chances but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. The good thing was that we kept them relatively quiet and made sure we got a point.
“As much as Jamie had to make a couple of great saves, those saves come from shot at the edge of the box so it’s not as if we’ve been torn apart. Then in the second half they barely threatened and that’s down to the organisation in the defence which has developed a lot since the start of the season.”
Now, as the team prepare to face Dick Campbell’s Arbroath, Alan knows it’ll be difficult to get a win against the Angus side.
“I think they’ve only lost twice all season in the league and one of them was on the opening day so that shows you how tough they’ve been to beat this season. They’ve gone away from home and beaten Killie and Inverness so we don’t think for a second that they’ll come here and play with any fear.
“Up front they’ve got the league’s top scorer in McKenna and the boy Nouble both of whom caused us a lot of problems when we last played them so it’ll be a real test for our guys tomorrow.”
When the Jags fell to defeat at Gayfield Park earlier this season, individual mistakes cost them the game having taken the lead in the first half and Archie hopes the team’s tendency to concede slack goals has been eradicated in the time since.
“Well, we’re on an incredible run of clean sheets at the moment which shows the improvement that there has been. At the start of the season, we were leaking far too many goals and it was costing us points but since then we’ve really tightened things up.
“As I touched on earlier, we’ve become more organised and I think we’ve shown an ability to dig in and see out results when we need to. We’re also better at dealing with spells of pressure like when Queen of the South were on the front foot at the end of the first half on Saturday.”
Finally, Alan gave us the latest team news ahead of the game.
“We’ll hopefully have the same squad to choose from again. We got Lewis Mayo and Richard Foster back last week which was great and they’ll be available again. There are a couple of players carrying little knocks but we’ll just have to wait and see how they feel overnight before we make a final decision.”
Exclusive video interviews with Ross Docherty and Thistle assistant manager Alan Archibald will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Arbroath, starting at 2:30pm – click here to tune in.
We will be providing a pay-per-view option, priced at £12, for any supporter who wishes to watch our livestream of the match – click here for more info.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
Article Copyright © 2021. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
