Wednesday 21st January, 2015 at 9:41am
It was a special night for Jags fans as Kris Doolan scored four goals to help Thistle to a tremendous 5-0 victory over high flying Hamilton Accies. Thistle boss, Alan Archibald, couldn’t hide his delight when he spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly after the full time whistle.
“I think that is definitely one of the best performances I have seen in my time in charge. We matched them all over the pitch and everything seemed to come off for us. Each of our players worked ever so hard and i think you could see that in the performance and the result.
“Everybody knows how hard Hamilton work but we went and matched them for pace, power and work rate. We got our goals at the right time, going into half time only 1-0 up is always dangerous so to get a second so close to the break was perfect, that set us up perfectly for the second half.”
Although the team performed well as a whole the finishing, from one man in particular, was of the highest quality.
“After the St Johnstone game we said we didn’t work their keeper anywhere near hard enough. We never really got the ball in behind their back four and that cost us. It was the total opposite tonight and I think every time we got forward we felt as though we could hurt them. Dools was a big part of that and his finishing was world class tonight.
“His [Doolan’s] back heel will no doubt get the plaudits but I thought his header was superb too. The build up play from us helped Kris a lot and that was a big difference when you look at us tonight compared to Saturday. To be fair their goalie has a great save to keep Lawless’s shot out, I thought that was going in too to be honest.”
Although Thistle put themselves in an extremely strong position going into the break the gaffer was wary not to take them too lightly.
“Even at two nil we still know they can hurt us – just look at them against United last week – so it was vital we started the second half just as strongly.”
Man of the match was obviously Kris Doolan and, according to his manager, the striker was disappointed when he was subbed, despite his four goals!
Archie said: “Yea, I think he wanted to stay on and try to get five! We were talking about it before the game saying that he had been on a better run this time last season. Dools has been in and out of the team this term but that’s what you get from him, he’s the model professional. That performance will give him a massive confidence boost and hopefully he can kick on from there. That’s why we took him off to be honest, we have a massive game on Saturday and need all of our top guys as fit as they possibly can be.”
The nature of tonight’s result may have come as a shock to some but Archibald felt something of this magnitude was on the way.
“I think it has been bubbling under, at home especially. We’ve really just needed that kick, an opportunity to show what we can do when everybody is on form at the same time. That certainly came today. I think we’ve been close to that kind of result before but never quite killed teams off.
“The important thing is that we go and build on that. We’ve let ourselves down before when we’ve been in this situation so we just need to make sure we do the business on Saturday away to Kilmarnock. If we play anywhere near like we played today I have no doubt we can get the win at Rugby Park too.”
More video reaction will be available online soon exclusively to TAG members, including interviews with Alan Archibald and four goal hero, Kris Doolan.
