Saturday 13th May, 2017 at 7:27pm
It was a disappointing afternoon for Thistle fans as Alan Archibald took his side to McDiarmid Park for the third game since the split. The Jags went down 1-0 in a forgettable match and, when he spoke to ptfc.co.uk, Archibald was clear that the performance was not up to Thistle’s usual standards.
“Yea, I think St Johnstone deserved it today, especially on the second half performance. They were probably the better side for most of the game but we let them into it by giving the penalty away. We gave possession away in a key area and that led to spot kick being given. That’s the most disappointing thing because I felt the build up to it was very avoidable.
“There wasn’t a lot in it at any point but especially up until they scored the goal.it was two teams that were pretty much dead level in terms of possession and there really wasn’t much between the two sides. We know what to expect from St Johnstone and they are always going to be a tough side to break down but we didn’t do enough today.
“Our performance levels were way off it this afternoon. We weren’t good enough in possession and the number of stray passes showed that we really weren’t at it today. Compared to last week we were individually and collectively very poor. It’s disappointing because I thought things were level enough for the first 20 minutes or so but then they scored and that really changed the game.”
The Jags boss was at a loss to explain the drop off but didn’t hold back in showing his disappointment.
“I’m not sure why it happened today to be fair. The two performances we have put in since the split have been very good and there were loads of positives to take from both the Rangers and Hearts games even if we didn’t get the points that we maybe should have done. Today was different though, our performance levels dropped and we let St Johnstone control the game at times.
“We don’t want our season to fizzle out and I certainly don’t expect the players to be thinking like that in any way, shape or form.”
Despite the result there was one standout positive from the 90 minutes – another fantastic performance by Thistle’s primary custodian, Tomas Cerny.
“He has been superb all season. Once he got back to full fitness he was massive for us. He has won us points and games single handedly at times. We lost him for the first seven or eight games of the campaign and he was a massive loss. We’ve been delighted to have him back and he put in another wonderful performance for us today.
Alan Archibald’s side return to action on Thursday when Celtic are the visitors to Firhill. Kick-off for that game is at 19:45.
A more in depth video interview with Alan Archibald is available now to Jagzone subscribers and will be followed by reaction from Christie Elliott and Kevin Nisbet. Log in now to see it as soon as it is available.
A full game replay and extended highlights will be added shortly, both will be free for Jagzone subscribers.
For a full list of all the great content you can access from just £5.99 per month as a Jagzone member, click here.
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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.
