Wednesday 1st February, 2017 at 10:01am
Manager Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly after training on Tuesday morning to look ahead to what promises to be another tough Ladbrokes Premiership clash against St Johnstone.
“We know how difficult it will be against a St Johnstone side who have been fantastic all season. They are sitting eight points ahead of us now and will be looking to stretch that to an eleven point gap on Wednesday evening.
“We know that if we are to have any chance of bringing the gap down to five points, we’ll have to be at our very best and do the basics correctly. We’ll have to work harder than them and battle for every ball throughout the ninety minutes.”
Thistle have had the upper hand against St Johnstone in recent times, but the Perth Saints won the last clash at Firhill with a 2-0 victory, so the gaffer knows his side will have to be their very best to get all three points.
“We’ve had a good record against St Johnstone recently, but that all counts for nothing when the players cross the white line. It’s eleven v eleven and we know that, individually and as a team, we’ll have to match them all over the park.
“They have a good squad with lots of quality that can hurt you all over the park so we know that we’ll have to be at our best when the game begins.”
Thistle have recorded four consecutive clean sheets, something that gives the manager confidence that the side has a base to build on.
“It’s great that we have managed to get four clean sheets in a row. At the start of the season we were making mistakes and conceding sloppy goals so it is good that we have managed to get rid of that a little bit and given our team a base to build on.
“We haven’t managed to score in either of our last two games, but we have been creating chances and they just aren’t going in at the moment. By having a good defensive base, it means we only require a goal to win a game and that is a good positon to be in. We’ll have to keep working hard defensively and working hard as a team to have the opportunity to make it five clean sheets in a row on Wednesday.”
There is something magical about playing under the Firhill floodlights with Thistle enjoying a good record midweek at Firhill during the last twelve months.
“Night games at Firhill are always good, there is something a bit different to them compared to Saturday games. We’ve beaten Dundee at Firhill midweek this season and I think we won three out of four last season, so it’s a good run we’ve put together.
“We’re under no illusions of how tough this game will be and every player will have to be switched on from the first whistle, do the basics right to give us a chance of getting three points from the game.”
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