Tuesday 20th April, 2021 at 1:52pm
The pre-split fixtures end with a trip to face Dumbarton for Partick Thistle who find themselves one point off the top of the league following three consecutive wins in the last week and a half. The Jags managed victories against Peterhead, Clyde and Montrose in a six-day spell which saw them score 10 goals and concede none. Now, the Maryhill men travel to the C&G Systems Stadium for the last game before the division splits in two, taking on a Dumbarton side who took a point away from Firhill back in December. Thistle assistant manager Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the game:
“We’re on a good run at the moment and the boys are feeling good. We had a couple of days off which was a useful break after the three games in such quick succession but we’re desperate to get back playing. The players have that feeling of being on a winning run and just wanting to get back out for the next game as quickly as possible.
“I think you don’t feel that tiredness as much when you’re winning games and that helped carry us through the fixtures last week. You could see we still had that energy in the Montrose game despite having played two days prior so we just want to carry that forward.”
After an intense block of games last week, Archie says the team were given a well-earned rest to make sure they would be ready again come Tuesday night.
“We had planned everything out at the start of the week and giving the players who were playing all these minutes a rest was part of that. Again, it’s about moulding each players workload and that meant that guys who hadn’t played as many minutes or who are still coming back from injury were still coming in to do some work before everyone had the Saturday off.”
If there are any questions as to how difficult a game the trip to Dumbarton promises to be, Thistle only have to cast their minds back to December when they were left frustrated by a goalless affair in Maryhill and Alan says the management team expect more of the same resilience from the Sons.
“It could be one of our toughest games since the restart because Dumbarton have also not played since Thursday meaning they’re well rested. Jim Duffy knows how to make his team difficult to beat and you can see from their results, they tend to be involved in very tight games.
“We’re looking for points to take us to the top of the league but Dumbarton are in their own battle down at the bottom so we’ll have to be ready for a tough contest.”
The frequency of the games last week left the Jags with a couple of knocks to contend with but Alan is hopeful that no one new will miss the trip to G82.
“There are a few niggles from the game last Thursday so we’ll need to have a couple of fitness tests ahead of the game but hopefully no one will miss out and we’ll have pretty much the same squad to pick from. We’ve been able to give players a bit of rest late on in certain games which has really helped us keep certain players fit.”
More exclusive preview interviews with Alan Archibald and Brian Graham are available for JagZone subscribers to watch now – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our fixture against Dumbarton – click here to tune in.
The home side are offering a PPV option, priced at £12, for Jags fans who wish to watch a livestream of the game – click here for more info.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of our trip to face Dumbarton on JagZone.
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