Friday 17th December, 2021 at 1:36pm
Set pieces were a thorn in Thistle’s side this past Saturday as Arbroath beat the Jags 2-0 with goals from a corner kick and a free-kick, however, dead ball situations have been a friend to the Maryhill men for most of this season thanks in large part to the deliveries of Kyle Turner. The midfielder has a league-high six assists so far this season, all coming from corner kicks, and he’ll be hoping to add to that tally as Raith Rovers visit Firhill this Saturday. Turner spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the game, starting by reflecting on last weekend’s defeat:
“To be honest, I think we just had an off day. The run we had been on was very good and we’d kept a lot of clean sheets but we weren’t able to perform to the standard we’d set for ourselves last weekend.
“Arbroath took a couple of their chances at good times and we missed a chance at 1-0 which could have changed the game but we can’t think too much about what could have been. We need to move on and get ready for Raith which will be tough because they’re on a great unbeaten run as well.”
Heavy rain last week meant conditions weren’t conducive to a free-flowing game of football but Kyle still felt the Jags could have done more in the game.
“It wasn’t ideal with the pitch, it was quite slippery and you saw a few of the boys falling over at times but even with that I thought we moved the ball quite well for the first 20 minutes or so. As the game went on though it became a bit of a battle and we knew that was a possibility but Arbroath seemed to deal with it better which was very disappointing.”
Now, preparing to take on a Raith Rovers, Turner says it’s very important for the Jags to bounce back although they know it will be difficult against a team who haven’t tasted defeat in 15 games.
“When you lose, it’s always massive to see a reaction. We know that if we win the game, we’re right back into the pack again and we’ll be closing the gap on teams. That’s where we want to be – challenging for the top four – and obviously Raith are up there with us.
“They’re on a good run at the moment. They’ve got a good team and a good manager but we’ve got to go into it with plenty of belief because at the end of the day that’s one defeat in ten games for us and we can’t forget the good things we did during that run.”
When the Jags went to Kirkcaldy earlier this season, John McGlynn’s side were 3-2 victors having been 3-0 up at one point so Kyle is hoping the team can keep things tighter this time round.
“We made things hard for ourselves when we went up there. They went 3-0 up and you can’t give any team a head start like that, especially a team as good as Raith. We came back into it very late on and got two quick goals which shows we can hurt them but, as I say, we’d given ourselves too much to do.”
Exclusive video interviews with Thistle assistant manager Alan Archibald and Richard Foster will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Raith Rovers, starting at 2:30pm – click here to tune in.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
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