Alves holds no fear for Sammon

CONOR SAMMON is relishing his tussle with Rangers defender Bruno Alves when Partick Thistle play host at the newly renamed Energy Check Stadium at Firhill tonight. The Republic of Ireland striker, currently on loan from Hearts, is yet to score for Thistle. However, as Alan Archibald’s side aim for their first Premiership victory of the season, he is looking forward to locking horns with the experienced Portuguese international. ‘I love having the opportunity of going toe to toe with someone like Alves, I’ll relish that,’ said Sammon. ‘His career has been impressive both at club and international level. He looks like he looks after himself, given his age. ‘This is a real opportunity to have a go against players like that and for us, as a group, to show our quality against that quality of opposition as well.’ Sammon came off the bench in Hearts’ 2-0 win over Rangers in November 2016 at Tynecastle and insists Thistle will need to get stuck into the Ibrox club straight away. ‘You need to get into people’s faces in order to win a game of football in general,’ he said. ‘You need to work extremely hard, you need to stop the opposition from playing and Rangers have some very good midfielders who like to get on the ball and create things. ‘It is up to us to match them and more than match their work rate and work ethic. ‘We also need to show our quality on the ball and cause them real problems.’ Although Sammon (pictured) has failed to find the net in his four league appearances for the Jags, he insists he is unfazed by his goal drought. ‘It can bother you if it goes for a long period of time, but for me I still feel new to the group and have only played a handful of times,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t bother me. I just look at the opportunity to get that first goal and look to build upon it. ‘Sometimes when you play out wide you can get more opportunities, crazy as that may sound. ‘If you are playing as the striker, then maybe you’ve got two or three defenders around you but if you are coming in from out wide, then sometimes you can ghost in on crosses or have more time to have a go at defenders. ‘So I don’t see it as a harder thing to score from a wide area and I’m happy to play that position. ‘I don’t see why Friday night can’t be the time for me to score my first goal for Partick in front of our home fans as well. ‘I’m looking forward to the chance of getting on the scoresheet and trying to help us get the three points that we’re looking for.’ Thistle sit tenth in the Premiership on just one point after five games and manager Archibald admitted he is desperate for victory. ‘Any win would be good at the moment — I don’t think it matters who it comes against,’ he said. ‘We haven’t beaten anyone in the league yet, so we’ll take any kind of victory and three points against Rangers is the same as against anyone. ‘Obviously, the longer we go without a win the harder it gets for us. ‘We got a draw in Dingwall last week and, hopefully, that will prove to be a good point as the season goes on. ‘We’re desperate to get that first win, though, and it becomes more of a pest the longer that wait goes on.’ When the two sides met last season at Firhill, Thistle conceded two goals after the 80th minute in both games to lose 2-1 and on both occasions the Rangers winner came in stoppage time. ‘Listen, the lads are well aware of what happened then but it just goes to show what can happen when you have that quality on the pitch,’ added Archibald. ‘It doesn’t matter how many minutes are on the clock; you’ve got to be switched on against good opposition. ‘They proved in both of those games that quality players can pop up at any time and either create something or score a goal. ‘We know we did well in those matches but this is a different Rangers side now. ‘There’s been a massive turnaround in players and they play in a different style, too, but we’re ready for that challenge.