Tuesday 9th August, 2016 at 12:15pm
Thistle have recorded five wins in their opening five games and head to Tannadice this evening looking to secure a place in the quarter finals of the Betfred Cup. Ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Alan Archibald ahead of the clash.
“It’s been a great start to the campaign. We were hoping to continue our good Betfred Cup form into the league campaign and I’m delighted that we’ve done that. It took us ten games to get our first league win last year and to grab one on the opening day of the season is a good way to start.
“We’re looking to carry on the winning feeling and our trip to Tannadice gives us a great opportunity to do that. Dundee United are a totally different side from last season and have strengthened like a Premiership team so we know it will be an extremely difficult tie. We haven’t got a great record at Tannadice in cup competitions but we do have a group of players who have experience of winning at Tannadice from last season.”
Thistle reached the quarter finals of the tournament two seasons ago and Archie is looking to match that again this season.
“We would love to go on a cup run. It’s something our fans haven’t had over the last few years and when you see other clubs going on to lift trophies, it is something that makes you a little bit envious. We know that we will be in for a tough battle against Dundee United and our focus is firmly on that game. We need to get through this tie before we can start looking further into the competition.”
Liam Lindsay took a heavy knock during Saturday’s clash with Inverness and we asked the gaffer how he was progressing.
“Liam is 50/50 for the trip to Dundee. He was on the wrong end of a fair 50/50 challenge on Saturday and had to come off. We’ll give him every chance to make the game on Tuesday night though.
“Tomas Cerny also picked up a knock during Saturday’s game and we’ll assess how he is closer to kick off. Other than that we have only the long term guys who are unavailable to us.”
With Thistle not playing on Saturday, it gives Thistle’s players an opportunity to get a bit of rest ahead of the next league fixture at Pittodrie.
“We’re on a winning run and when you have such great results you want to keep playing. With no game on Saturday there is now a bit of a gap between tonight’s clash with Dundee United and our next league game with Aberdeen. On the flip side of that, it means we can possibly get players through the cup tie and know we have ten days to rest them ahead of the extremely tough trip to Pittodrie.”
There is only one focus at the moment for the coaching staff as they look to secure a quarter final berth.
“We’re only looking as far ahead as tonight’s clash at Tannadice. There will be a large Thistle support there tonight, they always back us in massive numbers, and we want to get through to the next round for them. They deserve a lengthy cup run and it’s up to us to deliver it for them.”
