Saturday 8th November, 2014 at 10:07am
As Alan Archibald looks towards St Mirren on Saturday he spoke to ptfc.co.uk and told us how frustrating it was to lose a last minute goal, and two points, against Hamilton.
“If you look at the week we had last week, losing 6-0 to Celtic on the Wednesday night and then to go 2-0 down in the first half, it could have been devastating. I was glad to see how the team did react though and thought they turned it round really well.
“There is obviously an initial disappointment, having led the game until such a late stage, but we’ll take the positives out of that. Scott and I have sat down and looked over it again and, while I understand the frustration from a fan’s point of view, it really didn’t look like coming last week. Last year, particularly at home, you could see goals coming against us but on Saturday it was just individual errors that let us down. At the end of the day there were definitely enough positives there to go and build on.”
Steven Lawless set up two of the goals last week and the Thistle boss was quick to praise the diminutive Jags wide man.
“Stevie has been doing ever so well for us this season. He started last year on fire as well and you’ve definitely seen that so far this time round – I hope he keeps it up. He knew he had to kick on this year and he worked really hard in pre-season on his game and his physical attributes as well. I thought he really took the game by the scruff of the neck last week and caused them all sorts of problems.”
When looking towards this Saturday’s opponents Archie is looking to pile on the misery for Tommy Craig.
“I know what it is like, as a manager, to go on a bad run – we had it last year. However I also know that nobody felt sorry for us when they were taking points and we won’t be feeling sorry for St Mirren come Saturday. We’ll be going in with the attitude that we want to get the first goal and dominate from there.
“Their home form isn’t great but neither is our away form. We’ll look to capitalise on their lack of confidence and use it to our advantage, like so many teams did to us last season.”
Buddies’ captain, Jim Goodwin, is out of the tie having been handed a retrospective suspension for an incident in St Mirren’s game against Dundee United, and Archibald knows it will be a loss for the home team.
“He’ll definitely be a loss for them, his experience did well in the two games so far this season and he is a main player in their squad. He’s a real organiser for them so I’m sure he’ll be a loss, just like Stuart will be for us.”
There were a couple of missing face for the match against Hamilton so what are the selection issues for Archie ahead of the match at St Mirren Park?
“Kallum Higginbotham’s knee flared up on Tuesday afternoon so we’ll give him as long as we can to see how he is. Sean Welsh came out of the game fine but took a heavy kick in training but hopefully he’ll be OK for Saturday too.”
