Tuesday 3rd March, 2020 at 2:39pm
In a closed door game against Rangers last week, Dario Zanatta bagged two goals as the Jags ran out 2-1 winners and now the Canadian is desperate to carry that goalscoring touch into the competitive games as Thistle begin a busy March period with a fixture against Queen of the South tonight. Neither the Jags nor the Doonhamers have won in 2020 and with just three points separating the teams it’s set to be a huge fixture. Dario spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the clash at the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill:
“It’s a game we have to go into with confidence. We weren’t playing at the weekend of course but a couple of the results went our way and now we’re the team with games in hand on others so the boys are really keen to get back out there.
“It’s good that the results went in our favour but it’s now down to us to capitalise on situations like these. Playing Queen of the South, who are directly above us, is a great opportunity to really take a big step forward so that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”
In a game with so much on the line, some might think that both teams will be wary of attacking too much with the possibility of conceding in mind but Zanatta believes that the Jags have to come out and try to put pressure on the Queen’s defence.
“We’re the home team so we should be confident going into it and hopefully we get a good number of fans along to support us. For us, we want to be positive; we can’t go into this one trying not to lose. If we can win, we go level on points with them and that is a big chance for us which we intend to take.”
It’s been over two weeks since Thistle’s last competitive game and even longer for the likes of Dario Zanatta and Darren Brownlie who missed our semi-final against Raith Rovers. That’s something that has positives and negatives according to Zanatta.
“As much as you want to be playing games, I think it’s been a good thing. Guys who have injuries like Zak Rudden have had that extra time to recover and get back to 100% while for the rest of us we’ve had a chance to regroup and fully prepare for this final push of the season.”
Ian McCall’s side have had a friendly during their time without competitive action in the aforementioned game against Rangers and Dario felt that was a very positive exercise for the squad.
“Personally, it was good to build a bit of confidence with the goals. Their team had plenty of quality in it and to be able to go toe-to-toe with them and get a win was good for everyone. We tried a couple of new things too which was good to get some practice with.”
Like the Jags, Queens have struggled in 2020 with no wins to their name since the New Year and Dario knows that means they’ll be just as desperate for the points as the hosts.
“Queens seem to have been a bit hit-or-miss this season where you don’t know what kind of performance they’re going to produce but they do have the potential to play really well and pull out some good results. They had a really disappointing result at the weekend and will be hoping for a reaction against us so we’ll have to be fully prepared.
“Both teams are going to be fighting to the very last for those points because they mean a lot at this stage of the season. We have to go out there and make sure we’re the ones who get them.”
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