Saturday 16th January, 2016 at 3:44pm
Thistle’s good run of performances and results came crashing to a stop today when the Jags were comprehensively beaten 4-2 by an impressive Dundee side. Alan Archibald was clearly still seething about his side’s performance when he spoke to ptfc.co.uk minutes after the final whistle.
“Obviously it was a terrible result and the performance was nowhere near up to the standards we have set ourselves but it all stemmed from the poor, poor start we had. We never recovered from our start and we got punished for our mistakes. I don’t want to take anything away from Dundee though – they were excellent today – but we made it far too easy for them.
“It was unusual today as we defended really poorly. Our defence has been outstanding recently but we really didn’t defend anywhere near as well as you need to at this level. We were very poor in possession and we allowed their key players to play. Dundee are a very good side and when you do that you know they will punish you – that’s exactly what we got today.”
Although the match was never in any serious doubt the snowy conditions certainly had an impact on the game, but Archibald wasn’t looking for excuses.
“The conditions were far from ideal today but it wasn’t the reason we lost the game. The players have to go out there and manage the match better. The weather was the same for both sides and it’s no excuse.”
It was certainly one of the poorest performances of the season from Thistle and Archie was struggling to pick out any positives from the 90 minutes.
“I don’t think there were any pass marks across the whole team today. It was one of the poorest performances I think I have seen in my time here as manager. The only positive for us was Christie Elliott returning from injury, he has been out for a long time so it was really good to see him back in the fold.”
With the score 4-1 at half time it was always going to be a struggle for the side in red and yellow, but Archibald was still disappointed at the lack of fight from his side.
“At half time we made it clear to the boys that the performance was unacceptable. At that point you just want them to go out there and restore a bit of pride for themselves and for the supporters who have paid money to come and watch us today but I don’t think we did that either. We hardly made a chance in that second half – we were miles off it.”
