Saturday 2nd May, 2015 at 7:19pm
Alan Archibald and all of his players and backroom staff will certainly sleep well tonight, as Thistle secured a third season in the top flight with at least three games remaining for the first time since 1981. The Jags boss spoke to ptfc.co.uk after the game and was visibly delighted with the result and his team’s performance.
“First and foremost I’m absolutely delighted to have secured another season in the top flight of Scottish football. It’s a tremendous achievement and, to have done it with three games to go shows real improvement from last season.”
“We aren’t done yet though and the aim now is to win our remaining games and finish as high up the league as we possibly can. If we can do that then we have a magnificent platform to go and build on going into next term.”
On the game itself Thistle dominated most of the match and deserved their victory although there was a period where Archie was concerned his team might struggle to get the first goal.
“We were a bit worried that we weren’t going to be able to break them down and get that ball over the line. They were hard to play against and the first half didn’t really go for us. After half time we kept going, defended well and got the first goal which made all the difference.
“After Stevo got the first it freed us up a bit and I always thought we would go out and get a second. I was delighted for Dools as that puts him into double figures for the season.”
There was a strong penalty shout for St Mirren in the first half but Archibald always had faith that his team would triumph in the end.
“Yea, they’ve maybe been a bit unlucky with that but, to tell the truth, I always had faith that our boys would win and that they would get themselves back into it if need be. We’ve been on a great run and the team are playing as well as they have since I took over as manager. It’s a great place to be right now and we need to take that positivity into the rest of this season and the start of next.”
Having secured safety at Tynecastle last season Alan was happy to be able to give the home fans at Firhill the pleasure of seeing the Jags book their place in the top flight for another season.
“It’s always good to do it on home turf. Tynecastle last season was a great night but we wanted to reward our loyal home fans this season by winning and achieving safety here at Firhill. We can now start looking towards next season and plan for it knowing where we are going to be. We’ll start speaking to players about contracts almost immediately. It’s a great position to be in as we can really start planning now and are able to do it before a lot of other clubs – that can make the difference.
