Tuesday 16th April, 2013 at 9:44pm
To say that everyone was a little disappointed at the end of last night’s game would be something of an understatement. In the immediate aftermath of the 0-0 draw with Raith Rovers it was perhaps forgotten, just for a short time, that the point gained established a 9 point lead with just 3 games to go. As manager Alan Archibald said when speaking to [link:HOME] after the game that’s a position that we have jumped at had we been offered it at the start of the season.
“We would have been delighted with this situation but we’re still disappointed tonight because we wanted to wrap it up in front of our own fans nit it wasn’t to be. The silver lining is that we would have been delighted with this position at the start of the season.”
A poor start to the game nearly saw Rovers open the scoring on not one, not two but on three occasions and there was praise for Scott Fox who earlier in the day had signed a new two year contract at the Club.
“He was outstanding”, said Alan in reference to Scott.
“We could have been 3-0 down inside the first ten minutes. That was probably the worst ten minutes that we’ve played out there all season to be honest. We were a bit shaky and credit to Scott Fox he’s done that all season for us. I said at the time when he was injured that you don’t realise how good a goalkeeper is, and what a presence he has, until he’s not there. I don’t mean that as any disrespect to Graeme Smith, who came in and did really well, but I just think that when your goalkeeper and defence have the kind of relationship where the defence has confidence in the goalkeeper and he in turn has confidence in his defence then you have a real asset; and that’s the kind of relationship Scott and his defence have.”
Alan continued;
“I’m delighted that he has signed a new deal. He’s the kind of player that when he’s out injured people go ‘well it’s just Foxy’ but the wee bad spell we had this season was when he was out the team.”
Although we didn’t get the win we so desperately wanted last night there could be no faulting the effort from the players.
“The players gave everything; they’ve played a lot of games. After about 25 minutes I thought that we bossed the game and that it was just a matter of time before we scored but things bounced about and bobbled about and just didn’t fall for us.”
After three tough league games with Raith Rovers in the league prior to last night’s game Alan always knew that last night’s match would be a difficult one.
“We stressed to the players about how hard this game was going to be. They probably should have got a point the last time they were here when we stole a 3-2 win I thought when a draw would probably have been a fair result. So we knew how hard it was going to be, they are well organised and they are a good team.”
Focus now turns to Falkirk on Saturday and another chance to wrap up the title comfortably before the end of the season.
“We’re disappointed tonight but at the same time we probably shouldn’t be. We know have a chance to go and clinch the league at Falkirk with two games still to play. The boys have been fantastic and a real credit. I don’t know just how many games that they’ve played over the last six weeks and you think that they must be running on empty but they just keep on going. It feels as if the players have been in every Sunday for the last 8-12 weeks and. It feels as if they’ve never been away from the place; it will be nice to get a rest next week.”
