Saturday 23rd January, 2016 at 3:43pm
After a game that was certainly forgettable, Thistle boss, Alan Archibald, spoke to ptfc.co.uk to reflect on a point that was hard earned but came from a very poor game.
“I thought that was awful and a really terrible game to watch. It wasn’t a great game of football by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re ever so pleased to be heading down the road with a point. It was a tough shift today and, although we never really got going in the first half, we looked resilient at the back and worked hard to keep the clean sheet.
“The conditions weren’t great and when the wind got up it certainly affected the way the game was played. Every time the ball went high the wind caught it and had a big impact on where it ended up. We never really got going during the first 45 but we did improve in the second and caused them some problems.”
Having signed a new contract in the week Tomas Cerny again showed his value to Thistle with an extraordinary save to tip over a Storey strike with around 70 minutes gone.
“Tomas has been massive for us this season and that’s another great save and a great example of exactly why were are so happy to have him tied down until 2018. With Doolan, Cerny and Erskine all signed up for next season now we are certainly starting to build the spine of a really good looking side for the 2016/17 campaign.”
Despite the poor spectacle, it was a point which saw Thistle leapfrog Motherwell into eighth spot, the importance of which Archibald is not underestimating.
“It’s great to move up a place again today but you only have to look at that table to see how tight it is in the bottom half to know that we need to keep the performances up. It was vital to get a response from the guys after last week and I think we got that today – you saw that with the clean sheet.
“There were other positives too. Freddie coming in and showing what he can do is really encouraging and we have no problemsor questions over his sharpness. Seeing Christie Elliott getting more minutes under his belt was great too. Christie has had a terrible time of it this season but he put that behind him today and gave us a real spark after he came on.”
The Jags showed a real resilience at the back, something Archibald knows has been missing at times this season. “We were certainly more resilient today and I think we defended very well on the whole and positionally we were much better all over the pitch. All that we were missing was a cutting edge up top today, and that isn’t a slight at Doolan – he worked hard but he had very little support and we struggled to carve out many clear cut opportunities.
“The number one was to improve on last week and we certainly did that tonight. We were more organised and kept our shape much better. All in all it gives us a decent platform on which to build going into a massive game against Dundee United next week.”
