Saturday 12th December, 2015 at 2:05pm
Ahead of another vital Ladbrokes Premiership game, ptfc.co.uk caught up with Thistle manager Alan Archibald to gather his thoughts.
“We were disappointed to have our game postponed against Motherwell last weekend. The side has been in good form and we were looking to continue that, especially at home.
“With the game being off I got to take in last weekend’s Kilmarnock v Dundee United fixture and I saw first-hand that Dundee United have improved a lot since we played them at the start of October. Tannadice isn’t a ground we’ve had too much success on over the years, although we won our last game there, but we’ll go into the game with confidence. It’s a real six pointer”
The Ladbrokes Premiership table is a tight division with only five points separating six sides in the middle of the table.
“There isn’t a lot between many of the teams and that is reflected in the compactness of the league table. After our bad start to the season, our first focus was to get back into the pack. We’ve done that now and with all the bottom six sides playing each other this weekend, something has to give. Hopefully we can pick up three points and we’re looking down on them.”
Thistle know all too well the perils of being at the bottom of the league and Archie knows United will be dangerous opponents
“We were down the bottom of the league earlier this season, but have managed to turn it around. Mixu will be looking for his side to do the same. It’s unusual to see them propping up the table as they have had a lot of success in recent years with top half finishes and reaching cup finals. It’s football though, and we saw it last year with Motherwell when they went from second top to second bottom.”
Finally, Alan brought us up to date with tomorrow’s team news
“Christie Elliott is still out long term so he won’t make it. Ryan Stevenson and Steven Lawless have picked up niggles which happens at this time of year, and we’ll give both every chance to prove their fitness ahead of tomorrow’s game.”
