Saturday 1st February, 2014 at 2:41pm
The January transfer window hasn’t traditionally been a busy time at Partick Thistle but that certainly hasn’t been the case this year. The arrivals earlier today of Prince Buaben and George Moncur has taken the number of additions made to the squad since the turn of the year to six. The traffic though hasn’t all been heading in the one way with Hugh Murray, Mark McGuigan, John Baird, Mark Kerr and, earlier today, Ross Forbes all leaving the Club in January.
[link:HOME] caught up with manager Alan Archibald earlier this afternoon and he was delighted with the business that he’d completed during January whilst also admitting that it had also been a frustrating period.
“I’ll not lie, we’ve had some knock backs as we’ll”, said the Thistle manager who celebrated one year in the job on Thursday before continuing;
“We tried to keep as many irons in the fire as possible as things can fall through at the last minute. You think that a deal has been done only for the player, or his club, to change their mind. It’s not an easy window to deal in but I’m pleased with what we’ve managed to do.”
Alan went on;
“We’ve obviously let a few players go as well with Ross Forbes the latest to leave the club. There was interest in Ross from Dunfermline and I couldn’t stand in his way of regular football when he wasn’t going to feature as often for us as he would have wished. It was a similar situation for John Baird and Mark Kerr, who also left this week; they need to be playing regular football. We’re also going to allow Liam Lindsay to go out on loan with Alloa Athletic. Darren Brownlie has already gone on loan to Cowdenbeath and done well and hopefully Liam will do the same. It does leave Scott McKenzie a little short in numbers for the under 20s but player development is the most important things.”
What then of the two players that Alan has brought to Firhill on loan today?
“Prince Buaben is an excellent player, one that has played at the highest level and won the Scottish Cup with Dundee United. I’ve been tracking him all season and tried to get him in the summer but it wasn’t possible to get him then. I was made aware that he might become available and I’m delighted to get him now. George Moncur meantime is another midfielder. He’s a young player who can pass the ball well and get around the pitch. I’m really pleased too to bring him to Firhill. We were short of numbers with Isaac Osbourne and Sean Welsh injured and with others leaving the Club. It was good to get numbers back up.”
“It was great to bring in Lyle Taylor, Gary Fraser, Lee Mair and Chris Erskine earlier in the transfer window and them plus the two we’ve got today really increases the options open to us.”
One option that the manager thought he might be without for tomorrow’s game with Dundee United was Kallum Higginbotham but despite picking up a nasty injury at St Mirren last weekend he’s all set to feature tomorrow.
“I’m surprised that Kallum will be back as I thought after suffering gash on his knee cap he would be out for a few weeks. I picked up a similar injury and I was out for about that length of time. Kallum though was keen to train on Monday although we held him back until Tuesday. He’s shown great attitude and it is excellent news that he will be fit for tomorrow especially with Chris Erskine unable to play.”
Alan went on;
“Tomorrow’s game will be a very difficult one but with things congested at the foot of the league we want to get points and keep looking at those sides above us. The last time we played United they were flying but I thought on that particular occasion we showed them too much respect which we didn’t do in the previous games with them. United though haven’t won in their last five games and it will be a different United side we will face tomorrow. We will though need to start the game better and with a better attitude if we are to get the three points.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 3 1 6 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
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday January 25th 2014
St Mirren 0, Partick Thistle 0
Dundee United Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 2 3 4 11
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Stuart Armstrong 7
Nadir Ciftci 7
Gary Mackay-Steven 7
Ryan Gauld 6
David Goodwillie 6
Andrew Robertson 5
Brian Graham 4
Keith Watson 4
Ryan Dow 1
Chris Erskine 1
Paul Paton 1
John Rankin 1
John Souttar 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday January 18th 2014
RossCounty 3, Dundee United 0
Last Meeting
Scottish Premiership
Saturday November 23rd 2013
Dundee United 4, Partick Thistle 1
Teams
Dundee United: Cierzniak, Wilson, Souttar, Gunning, Robertson, Paton (Gomis), Rankin, Mackay-Steven, Gauld, Armstrong (Graham), Ciftci (Goodwillie).
Thistle: Fox, McMillan, Taylor-Sinclair, Balatoni, Craigen, Bannigan, Doolan, Forbes (Lawless), Muirhead, Osbourne, Higginbotham (Elliott).
Scorers
United: Mackay-Steven (2 & 76), Robertson (69), Graham (84)
Thistle: Muirhead (57)
Crowd: 6,700
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday February 1st 2014
Partick Thistle v Dundee United
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Details
Match Officials
Referee: Willie Collum
Assistant Referees: Martin Cryans and Stuart Hodge
Fourth Official: Euan Norris
Other Fixture
Scottish Premiership
Kilmarnock v RossCounty
