Friday 15th September, 2017 at 11:54pm
After guiding his Partick Thistle side to their first point of the league season against Ross County last time out, Jags boss Alan Archibald faced the tough task of a Rangers visit to Maryhill for the first of two meetings with the Gers this week. His side fell behind early thanks to a Alfredo Morelos goal but battled back to take the lead through two goals early in the second half. Blair Spittal and Chris Erskine both netted for the Jags but goal scorer, Erskine was sent off with over 20 minutes to go and with that the game shifted. Rangers piled on the pressure and got their equaliser through former Thistle man, Graham Dorrans, as he struck a ranged shot home from 25 yards. They continued their onslaught into the dying embers of the game but were unable to break down a resolute Thistle rear-guard and the game ended level. Thistle manager, Alan Archibald, spoke with ptfc.co.uk after the game to share his thoughts on the evening’s action.
Despite being pleased with the way his team came back to take the lead, Archie was disappointed with the goal that his boys conceded to let Rangers draw level.
“I think the game changes massively with the red card because after that we struggled to get any of the ball. We actually dealt with most of their attack well and Ryan Scully barely had a save to make if he even had one. The Rangers second was too easy for them. We let Dorrans step inside and we know the quality he has and he showed it there.”
Although, he felt Chris Erskine’s dismissal was a game changer, the gaffer was under no illusions about whether it was a red or not.
“It’s a blatant red card. Chris hasn’t got a bad bone in his body but he can’t tackle. That was evidenced in the red card collision. It came from him taking too many touches which was a bad habit throughout the team tonight. A lot of Rangers’ best attacks came from quick possession turnovers that were our own fault.”
Thistle’s poor start to the league season has been well-documented but Archie hopes that this result and performance, against one of the Jags’ city rivals, will galvanise the lads and give them confidence and motivation going forward.
“We’ve had a tough run but we feel we should have more points on the board. I asked the boys to build on what we did in the Highlands last week and they’ve done that. They showed belief and character to get back into the game after going behind so there are more than enough positives to take from tonight’s game.”
Alan and his squad now look forward to another clash with Rangers, this time in the Betfred Cup. The Jags take on the Gers in a league cup quarter-final on Tuesday night. Kick-off is 19:45 from the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill.
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Article Copyright © 2017. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
