Friday 27th November, 2020 at 8:08pm
Montrose are the opposition this week for Partick Thistle as they look to secure their first away points of the new League One campaign. The Jags were victorious last Saturday, beating East Fife 2-0 at Firhill while the Gable Endies suffered defeat at Broadwood despite coming from behind twice during the game. Jags assistant manager Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the trip to Angus:
“The win last week was big one for us. We were and still are missing so many players but the guys who were out there did a terrific job and looked the better side for probably the whole game apart from maybe ten minutes at the start of the second half.
“We created enough chances to score more than we did but we got those two goals and that was plenty with the defensive showing we put in to get the clean sheet which was just as pleasing as the goals.”
The victory over Darren Young’s side moved the Maryhill men up to fourth in the table and Archie says the squad has been lifted by those three points.
“The guys have been in great spirits this week and a win will do that. We were happy with how we did against Morton and it was good to win the penalty shoot but getting a clear cut win in the league has really boosted the mood of the group so hopefully we can carry that into the Montrose game.”
Coming back from suspension, Brian Graham’s goals either side of half-time were the difference in the game and Alan was very complimentary of the frontman’s efforts.
“He’s a massive player for us and as we saw last weekend, he can be a difference maker as well in terms of the results. It takes good character to step up and score a penalty having missed one a couple of weeks ago so huge credit to him for that and then his second goal was just brilliant so hopefully there’s plenty more to come from Brian.”
One of the other standouts from the win was Mouhamed Niang who had to fill in at centre-half to help cover for the plethora of players Thistle have out injured at the moment. The 21-year-old did a stellar job alongside Darren Brownlie as Thistle earned their first clean sheet of the League One term.
“Mouhamed did a terrific job at the back. He’s been a midfielder for a while now but he played centre-half when he first played with our reserves so we had confidence in him playing there. The whole defence did a really good job and stopped East Fife creating very much at all throughout the 90 minutes.
“That’s two clean sheets in a row now so we’re hopeful that we can keep that going. We still have plenty of injuries but you saw last week that we can be a good, organised unit even with those players missing.”
Archie stressed the importance of building some momentum after getting back to winning ways against East Fife.
“It’s key that we look to build on the win last week and put a run together. We saw quite a bit of Montrose last season by virtue of the fact that we had two players on loan there so we know they’re a good footballing side with some really potent attackers.
“Against East Fife, we felt that it was our best performance of the season so far even if we maybe didn’t score as many as we should have so for us it’s about carrying that forward into this week’s game so we can play with similar control and self-belief.”
To finish, Alan gave us an update on the injury front with a slightly more positive week this time round.
“Thankfully we haven’t picked up any more injuries this week but we’ve brought the amount of contact training and small-sided games right down to a minimum to avoid that. We’ve worked more on fitness and finishing so we’re glad to have no new problems to report.
“Positively, Blair Spittal has been moving a bit more freely this week which is a sign that it might not be quite as bad as we had thought so that’s good as well.”
More exclusive preview interviews with Thistle assistant manager, Alan Archibald and Ryan Williamson are now available for JagZone subscribers to watch – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for this weekend’s clash with Montrose – click here to tune in.
We’ll also have extended highlights and a full game replay of our trip to Montrose on JagZone this Saturday evening.
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