Friday 23rd September, 2016 at 12:02pm
Following last week’s draw against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park everyone is looking to get back to winning ways when Motherwell visit Firhill on Saturday. Nobody is keener for the three points than thistle boss, Alan Archibald, who spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of Saturday’s match.
“It was tough not to come away from Kilmarnock with all three points last week if I’m being honest. It’s difficult because if you’re looking at the way the match panned out on paper we were behind twice and it probably looked like a different kind of game, but we created chances and limited them too. That’s football though and we have to take the positives into Saturday and continue fighting hard for that next win.”
Jags skipper, Abdul Osman, misses Saturday’s clash following the red card he received at Rugby Park. In previous seasons this might have been more of an issue for Archie’s side but the gaffer is now confident that he has the personnel to cover.
“I think we used to panic a wee bit when Abdul wasn’t available but now we definitely have options in that area. We have Sean Welsh who was on the bench last week, and we also have Adam Barton who joined at the end of the transfer window but hasn’t featured yet. On top of those two Ryan Edwards can play there as well and I thought he was excellent last week, his energy really gives us a platform to go and play.”
It hasn’t escaped Archibald’s notice that, in Louis Moult, Motherwell have a striker in top form. However, despite Moult’s seven goals in just three games for the Steelmen this season, Archie doesn’t want to focus too much on just the one goal threat.
“Louis is clearly in great form – I think his goal tally for this term shows that – but it’s important that we don’t focus too much on just him and take our eyes off the other threats that Motherwell have like Scott McDonald and the new lad Bowman. Their front three was probably the difference between them getting into the top six and us missing out last season so we all know the threat they carry.
“We have our own threat too and we know we can go and hurt teams – we showed that in spells against Killie last week – but the point we earned on Saturday only becomes a good one if we win at Firhill this week. We’ve had two disappointing results at home now and the focus is getting back to winning ways on Saturday. Our home form is going to be ever so important for us this season and all that has to start now.”
Finally, the gaffer gave us a rundown of player availability.
“To be fair we’ve got a good group to pick from this week. Obviously Abdul is out because of his red card on Saturday and Erskine picked up a small knock in training but he should be fine.
“Tomas Cerny has been a concern because of the reoccurrence of his foot injury so we’ve taken the decision to give him three to four weeks of pure rehab and let him strengthen all the muscles in that area as much as possible. We’ll continue to assess him all the time and hopefully see where we are at the end of that period. Other than that we are just missing the long terms ones, Gary Fraser, Mustapha Dumbuya and Stuart Bannigan.”
There will be full build up, reaction, highlights and full game replays available to Jagzone subscribers before and after Saturday’s game. For those living outside the UK and Ireland you can also watch the match live, either by signing up to Jagzone World or by buying the match on pay per view basis.
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