Friday 12th April, 2019 at 3:22pm
It’s the long trip to Dingwall for Caldwell and his side as they look to take three points from the league leaders. Depending on Friday night’s results County could have their first chance at sealing the league this weekend and it will be down to the Jags to put a damper on the celebrations. Caldwell spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly before boarding the bus north and started with assurances that his side are focused and ready to win at the Global Energy Stadium.
“First and foremost we’re looking for three points for ourselves. We know we can cause them problems and we’ve shown that in the last two games. Unfortunately in those matches we haven’t had enough to take anything and that is the step we need to make on Saturday.
“We can take a lot from the first 45 minutes the last time we played them and we should have taken three points there. Likewise I thought we played really well in the game up there just before Christmas but it’s points that matter at the end of the day and that’s what we need to take from Saturday’s match. There are lessons to be learnt from both games but the positives are there too. Hopefully if we combine both of those we’ll come away with the win and the drive back down the road will feel a bit easier.”
Consistency has been a big word in the Jags camp in recent weeks. At times the football played by the Maryhill Men has been scintillating but periods of laxness sprinkled with errors have meant the points return hasn’t been what some of the play has deserved.
“Consistency is going to be all important and it comes down to the focus of the players. They need to focus on their performance and be ready to give everything for the team regardless of what else is going on around them. We’ve spoken to the players about making sure they control what they can control, in other words they focus on their own performances. We can’t control the outside factors, we just need to deal with them, but what we can do is ensure we are well prepared and put everything we can into the match.
“A level of consistency is something we’re working hard on during the week to give us the best chance of taking it into the game itself. Hard work will improve our consistency levels but it is frustrating because we have played some really good football at times and it has been let down by moments of slackness or poor play. When we put everything together though we should fear nobody.”
With just nine points separating fifth and tenth the Ladbrokes Championship shows no signs of settling down with twists and turns seemingly in the offing until the very last kick of the ball. Despite the madness around them Caldwell is adamant that Thistle simply need to focus on themselves to start moving up the table.
“You can’t predict anything in this league. I keep telling the players that we weren’t looking at the league table. All our focus needs to be on winning matches and making sure we are in a position much higher up the league come the end of the season. We’ve got five games left but we believe we are capable of winning all five.”
Finally the gaffer gave an update on the all-important team news ahead of Saturday’s clash.
“Obviously Stuart Bannigan is suspended which is disappointing but other than that there’s nothing major. We do have one or two niggles going into the game so we’ll need to wait and see what the state of play is by the end of today. Hopefully those carrying a little knock will recover in time because we will need everyone 100% committed come kick off in Dingwall.”
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