Saturday 23rd November, 2013 at 2:24pm
After a break last weekend it’s back to Premiership action tomorrow afternoon with Thistle making the trip to Tannadice to face an in-form Dundee United. The two sides have already crossed swords twice this season. The teams provided the newly formed Scottish Premiership with its’ curtain opener back in August with an entertaining Firhill encounter ending in a goalless draw. The most recent encounter, a League Cup tie at Tannadice, resulted in a 4-1 win for the home side. The score that evening wasn’t an entirely accurate reflection on how the game went but provides an indication of the potent threat that United pose up front. In two of last three games they have scored four goals; those wins at home to St Mirren and away to Motherwell coming either side of a highly credible 1-1 draw away to Celtic.
Coupled with their threat up front United have an impressive defensive record with no side having conceded fewer Premiership goals than Jackie McNamara’s side.
A stern test then lies in wait for Thistle who are desperate to get back to winning ways after a couple of disappointed results in their last two outings and Alan Archibald, when speaking to [link:HOME] after training today, is looking forward to the challenge ahead.
“I think that the break came at a good time for us as it gave us the opportunity to work on a few things. A lot of the goals we have been losing recently have come from set plays and that’s something that we’ve spoken to the players about and we’ve showed them a few things. The thing is that sort of thing is largely a mentality thing. You can only coach a player so much; you just hope that when they cross over the white line that they do the things that you have told them. The first goal is ever so important. In the First Division last season the team that scored first invariable ended up the winning team and that’s even more so in the Premiership. You saw how important the first goal was in our last game against St Mirren when they scored from the corner following what had been their first shot on goal.”
Alan continued;
“We’re really looking forward to what should be a good game. Dundee United are unlikely to sit in against us and they play a similar type of game to us so it should be a good game to watch. We lost 4-1 when we played them at Tannadice in the League Cup but the game was much tighter than the score suggested. I don’t really like saying that the game was tight when we lost 4-1 but it comes across as being a little false but Jackie agreed with that and felt that we played well that night.”
Our last win came away from home against Inverness Caledonian Thistle which proves that we are capable of winning against the better sides in the division.
Said Alan;
“I didn’t think that we played as well as we can do at Inverness but I got a great deal of satisfaction from that win. We’re getting into the winter months and at this time of year you really just want to win; it doesn’t matter how you do that. I would take a repeat of how we won at Inverness every day of the week.”
Finally the manager was able to give us the all important team news ahead of tomorrow’s game.
“Stephen O’Donnell and Gary Fraser are both suspended and we have a doubt over Sean Welsh who is struggling with a groin strain. Otherwise everyone is fit and available.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 0 4 3 10
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 5
Steven Lawless 3
Aaron Muirhead 3
Christie Elliott 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Ross Forbes 1
Kallum Higginbotham 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday November 9th 2013
Partick Thistle 0, St Mirren 3
Dundee United Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 1 2 10 3
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Nadir Ciftci 7
Ryan Gauld 5
Stuart Armstrong 4
David Goodwillie 4
Gary Mackay-Steven 2
Andrew Robertson 2
Keith Watson 2
Ryan Dow 1
Chris Erskine 1
Paul Paton 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday November 9th 2013
Motherwell 0, Partick Thistle 4
Last Meeting
Scottish League Cup Third Round
Wednesday September 25th 2013
Dundee United 4, Partick Thistle 1
Teams
Dundee United: Cierrzniak, Wilson, Robertson, Butcher, Gunning, Paton (Souttar), Goodwillie, Rankin, Graham (Dow), Armstrong, Ciftci (Gauld).
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Taylor-Sinclair, Welsh, Balatoni, Doolan (Baird), Forbes (Lawless), Piccolo, Elliott, Kerr, Higginbotham (Craigen).
Scorers
Dundee United: Goodwillie (31, 45, 90), Dow (85)
Thistle: Elliott (89)
Crowd: 3,778
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday November 23rd 2013
Dundee United v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Supporters Buses
Match Officials
Referee: William Collum
Assistant Referees: Willie Conquer and Dougie Potter
Fourth Official: Stevie O’Reilly
Other Premiership Fixtures
Celtic v Aberdeen
Hearts v RossCounty
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v St Johnstone
Kilmarnock v Motherwell
St Mirren v Hibs (12:45)
