Saturday 22nd July, 2017 at 10:22pm
After an excellent performance which saw Thistle run out 5-0 winners against St Mirren it was a very happy Alan Archibald who spoke to ptfc.co.uk shortly after the full time whistle.
With a number of high quality goals on display, there was only one place to start our chat – Blair Spittal’s free kick.
“It was an excellent piece of technique from Blair. We know he can bring quality from set pieces which is something we’ve perhaps been missing in the past. As soon as it left his foot you could see it was going in and I was delighted to see him get on the scoresheet so quickly after arriving at Firhill.
“This afternoon we scored a lot of good quality goals. Kris Doolan delivered what is a typical Kris Doolan finish with the first goal of the day. Steven Lawless popped up with a tremendous effort before we had Blair’s free kick and a composed finish from a counter attack to round the day off.”
Some of the Jags play, particularly in the first half, was a joy to watch with the attacking players rotating to complement each other and linking up with nice one touch play, something the gaffer was pleased to see.
“We showed it in spells last weekend but today we were a lot more consistent with it. We worked St Mirren hard and they had to work hard to try to stop us playing. With Abdul back in the side we had a lot more steeliness and that gives the guys ahead of him the ability to play with freedom to create opportunities.”
The one downside to this afternoon’s game was the dismissal of Abdul Osman for two yellow cards early in the second half.
“I haven’t seen it back yet but it’s disappointing because we were hoping to get 90 minutes under the belt for Abdul. We asked him at half time if he wanted to complete the full game and he was motivated to go and get the first minutes of his pre-season under his belt. He’ll be a miss for Tuesday night but it was more disappointing that he never got the extra minutes of fitness, particularly when he hasn’t played any of the pre-season action.”
The games come thick and fast for the side with the trip to the Excelsior Stadium on Tuesday and the manager is looking for more of the same from his side.
“We’ll get the players in and look after them with the two games to come in the next seven days but confidence will be sky high and I’m sure they can’t wait to have the chance to go out and do it again when we play Airdrie on Tuesday night.
“It was a great win today at Firhill as it will be the first time a lot of Thistle fans will have seen the squad since the end of last season. We’ve went out and put on a display for the supporter this afternoon and they will enjoy their weekend. We know we need to bring players in but we’ll be patient and make sure we bring in quality players to improve the squad we have.”
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