Saturday 25th July, 2015 at 3:23pm
Thistle concluded their pre-season preparations with a draw
against Rotherham United. Alan Archibald spoke to ptfc.co.uk
shortly after the full time whistle to give his verdict.
“Rotherham are a good side, which we knew. It was a good test
for the Hamilton game and that’s why we took it on.
“We’re now at the stage where we’re nearly ready to kick off. We’re just getting guys ready and making sure they have enough minutes. We had a couple of guys who didn’t play today as they
have been involved heavily during the other games and we didn’t want to play them too much.”
Thistle’s pre-season has seen the side face tougher opponents as
it has progressed through July.
““That was the thought in pre-season. We had Falkirk last Saturday on the astro last week to prepare for Hamilton and now we’ve had the English teams, who are big physical sides, they’ve got quality as well. They can pass the ball and test you bringing a bit of tempo to the game.”
Sean Welsh scored a spectacular equaliser to ensure the game
finished level.
“After two years of tough times, the goal was the icing on the
cake for him. It’s his first goal, I think, since beating Airdrie in
the 2012/13 season and it was a cracker. He’s had a good run of
it during this pre-season and hopefully we can guide him
through and get him back to his best.”
Thoughts now turn to next week’s game against Hamilton.
“It’s one of the toughest games we could have had. It’s a battle
and they have signed a few guys from outside Scotland which
makes them tough to research.
“We’re going into it in confident mood. We’ve drawn three and won one of our four pre-season games which is good form and we’re looking to get off to a flying start like we did last year.”
