Friday 14th September, 2018 at 11:49am
Partick Thistle’s 2018/19 league campaign continues this Saturday after a cup break as the Jags travel to the Highlands to take on Inverness Caledonian Thistle. For a second matchday in a row, Thistle take on the Championship’s second-placed team as the undefeated Caley Jags hosts the Maryhill men. The travelling Jags are just three points off the top of the Ladbrokes Championship table and will be looking to add to their tally at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium tomorrow. Thistle boss, Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the trip North.
We began by discussing just how tough a trip to Inverness can be, especially now, with Caley the only remaining undefeated side in the league.
“In this league, there are no easy games and this match fits right in with that. Every game is going to be competitive and you have to be on top of your game every week if you’re going to win regularly. We have a decent record up there in recent years but it’s a completely different team to the ones we’ve faced recently. They ended last season very well and you can see that their form has carried on into the new league season so we’ll have to be prepared.”
Archie then highlighted the importance of his players being able to put the disappointment of East Fife behind them.
“We tried to get over that result as early as we could this week. Everyone knows it wasn’t good enough but letting it get to us wouldn’t help anything and, ultimately, we’re now aiming to bounce back at Inverness. At Bayview we got a few players game time which will benefit us in the long run but we know we need to go out there and perform against Inverness tomorrow.”
Caley Thistle have been a formidable defensive unit since the turn of the year and have started the Championship season with three clean sheets in four games so the gaffer knows that breaking them down will prove to be very tough.
“I’ve watched a few of their matches and they’re an organised side. Last time out, in the league, they produced a great result against Dunfermline where they scored three and kept a clean sheet. For us, we want to find that balance too. We’ve had periods where we’ve defended well and periods where we’ve attacked well but we need to put that together and then do that consistently.”
He then told us how keen he is to get his side’s first away win of the new league campaign as the Jags look to make their form on the road as strong as their home performances in the Championship so far this term.
“We started well away from home in the Betfred Cup but the league is a whole different kettle of fish. In both away games so far, we’ve been off the pace and failed to really impose our style of play whereas, at home, we’ve played plenty of very decent football. We need to start producing that football away from home as well and we’ll be looking to start that this weekend.”
Alan finished by giving us an update on the status of his squad going into tomorrow’s game.
“Miles Storey will come back into the squad for the game. He had a bit of swelling on his knee so we wouldn’t even have risked him for a league game last Saturday but he’s trained all week and comes back in for tomorrow. Stuart Bannigan will come back in on the grass which will be a boost and Jai Quitongo has a chance of making the squad. That should mean we have a much stronger bench than we did last week which can only be good thing for myself.”
More exclusive preview interviews with Aidan Fitzpatrick, Miles Storey and Jags gaffer, Alan Archibald, are available to Jagzone subscribers – log in now to see them.
Jagzone members will also be able to watch extended highlights of the game.
Can’t make it to the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium? Jagzone members can listen to live audio commentary of the match. JagZoneLIVE begins at 2:45pm on Saturday.
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