Saturday 18th October, 2014 at 10:03am
With Thistle travelling north to the City of Discovery to take on Dundee United, ptfc.co.uk caught up with Alan Archibald to hear what he had to say about the weekend’s oponents.
“Dundee United are a very very good team and, on their day, can beat just about anyone – we know that. We played them three times in the league last season and we drew two and lost one. Apart from the game they turned us over in they were all close matches and to be honest, even in the one we lost we still played some good stuff at times.
“We know the way they play and they know the way we play so it’s always an open, entertaining game when we meet each other. We know that if we play as we know we can there is no reason we can’t get a victory up there tomorrow.
“They are very very good on the counter attack but we simply have to match them all over the pitch. It’s the attacking players that always take the plaudits but the two guys that sit, Paton and Rankin, always do a job and allow the other players to go forward and attack.”
The international break has see a new addition to the Jags’ squad with Belgian, Frederic Frans, joining the dressing room on a deal that will see him remain a Thistle player until at least January.
“Freddy coming on board brings a bit of competition in that area. It’s a position I think we were a little bit short in. I think you’ve seen that in the few games Dan Seaborne has missed and we never really filled the gap that Gabby Piccolo left either. Fred has a good presence, he’s an out and out centre half, he just goes and wins the ball. It was a good time to get him in too with the international break giving us the chance to have a proper look at him and make the decision.
“He’s got a good CV and he’s a good age as well, he comes with good pedigree and has settled in well. He’s here now and just wants to try and play, to get games under his belt – that suits us so we’ll see how he gets on.”
Last time out Archie had a host of injury problems and, while there are still a few boys missing, things are looking much better on the fitness front.
“We picked up a couple of knocks during the week and other than that, Sean Welsh isn’t match fit yet, Kallum Higginbotham has had his operation and everything wnt well so it’s looking like four weeks for him which is good news and gary Fraser got a scan yesterday so we’ll see, before too long, how that’s coming along. That’s Gary att he six week mark now so hopefully we’ll get good news from the scan on that front too.”
