Saturday 15th February, 2014 at 2:42pm
GAME ON AFTER PITCH INSPECTION
Nearly a fortnight has passed since Thistle were last in action, drawing 1-1 with Dundee United, and when manager Alan Archibald spoke to [link:HOME] early on Friday afternoon he admitted that it has been a long wait to get back into action.
“The time has dragged by and we are really looking forward to tomorrow’s game. The break was good in the respect that it has given Prince Buaben and George Moncur, both of whom were deadline day signings, the chance to get to know the group a bit better.”
A trip to Fir Park to face Motherwell is as tough a return to action as we could have got especially in view of the result the last time the two teams met.
Said Alan;
“I think we need to use the last result as motivation for tomorrow both to make amends for the final score and to show that the game was close for quite some time. We scored first in that game and were close to going 2-0 up and were doing very well. To have gone in at half-time losing wasn’t a true reflection on how the game had gone. In the end though it could easily have finished 6 or 7-1 to Motherwell. They are a really experienced team and they showed that that afternoon. We made a number of individual errors that afternoon and Motherwell were extremely ruthless in picking us off. I thought though that we showed great character in our next match away to Celtic and hopefully we will have learned from the experience of the Firhill game.”
The manager has virtually a full squad to select from for tomorrow’s game.
“The only two that are out are Isaac Osbourne and Sean Welsh, otherwise everyone is fine and really looking forward to the game.”
Alan went on;
“George Moncur played for the under 20s during the week and scored a good goal and impressed me. George isn’t as fit as the other players not having played as much football as he would have liked but we are building up his match fitness.”
One other player that featured for the under 20s through the week that definitely won’t be playing tomorrow is Alan Archibald himself.
“To be honest I had been dreading playing as St Johnstone have a very good under 20 side and my legs are still suffering after playing but I really enjoyed the experience. I don’t always get that much of a chance to work with the under 20s and this gave me the chance to see them in action first hand. The players were able to help me through the game and hopefully I was able to help them. It says much about how the team go about their business that their two centre halves are out on loan with First Division teams; Scott McKenzie is doing an excellent job with them. I would play again for the under 20s just so long as I wasn’t stopping someone else from playing.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 4 1 4 5
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Kris Doolan 7
Steven Lawless 5
Aaron Muirhead 4
Lyle Taylor 3
Christie Elliott 2
Kallum Higginbotham 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Ross Forbes 1
Gary Fraser 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday February 1st 2014
Partick Thistle 1, Dundee United 1
Motherwell Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 1 1 12 6
Scorers Season 2013-2014
John Sutton 11
Henri Anier 7
Lionel Ainsworth 5
James McFadden 3
Zaine Farncis-Angol 2
Robert McHugh 2
Stephen McManus 2
Shaun Hutchinson 1
Keith Lasley 1
Craig Moore 1
Iain Vigurs 1
Last Match
Scottish Premiership
Saturday February 1st 2014
Motherwell 2, Aberdeen 2
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Sunday December 29th 2013
Partick Thistle 1, Motherwell 5
Teams
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Taylor-Sinclair, Balatoni, Craigen, Bannigan, Doolan, Lawless (Baird), Piccolo, Elliott (Forbes), Higginbotham.
Motherwell: Twardzik, Hammell, Ramsden, McManus, McFadden (McHugh), Lasley, Francis-Angol, Carswell (Lawson), Vigurs, Anier (Sutton), Ainsworth.
Scorers
Thistle: Lawless (8)
Motherwell: Lasley (15), Francis-Angol (21), McFadden (36), Ainsworth (57), Sutton (66)
Crowd: 4,588
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday February 15th 2014
Motherwell v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Match Officials
Referee: Euan Norris
Assistant Referees: Derek Rose and Ross Haswell
Fourth Official: George Salmond
Other Fixtures
Celtic v St Johnstone (Sunday)
Dundee United v Kilmarnock
Hibs v Ross County
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Kilmarnock
St Mirren v Aberdeen
