Woods wary of Jags’ trip to wounded champions
MARTIN Woods admits Partick Thistle must be even warier than usual of a trip to Parkhead tonight after Hearts ‘poked the bear’ by beating Celtic last sunday.
The 31-year-old Jags midfielder was as surprised as anyone when Craig Levein’s side ended the champions’ 69-match unbeaten domestic run in such devastating fashion at Tynecastle.
But he knows that Brendan Rodgers will be looking for his men to lay down a marker at home against the Premiership’s bottom club this evening by way of a response.
Thistle haven’t beaten Celtic in the league since May 1995 — when a brace from Wayne Foster helped them to a 3-1 win at Hampden during Parkhead’s redevelopment — and a victory for Alan Archibald’s men following the weekend’s events would be seismic enough to test the stadium’s foundations.
‘I’m not pulling wool over anyone’s eyes — if we go there and get a result it’ll be a shock,’ said Woods.
‘But we’ve got to have that belief. Hearts poked the bear a wee bit, so we’ve got to be prepared for them to come out all guns blazing.
‘I think the fans will be there to show they’re right behind them and appreciate everything they’ve done in the last 18 months.
‘The whole club will be gearing to turn it round to get a good result against us and get back on track. It’s up to us to spoil that party.’
Woods, who joined Thistle on a free at the start of November, already knows what it’s like to upset the Jags’ bigger Glasgow neighbours.
He opened the scoring from the penalty spot for his former side Ross County in their 3-1 League Cup semi-final triumph over Celtic at Hampden in January 2016.
But Woods, who helped the Highlanders lift the trophy by beating Hibernian in the final, insists Celtic are now ‘a different animal’ to the team led by Ronny deila back then.
‘It was a good day in the semis at Hampden. Hopefully, we can replicate that, but it’ll be a big ask,’ he said.
‘Their run has been outrageous recently. They had a bad result on sunday but what they’ve done over the last year and a half has been unbelievable.
‘They’re a different animal under Brendan Rodgers as opposed to when we beat them under Ronny deila.
‘If we don’t play well, we’ve absolutely no chance of beating them.
‘If they have an off-day and we have an off-day, their off-day will be better than ours. so we need to be at the top of our game and hope they have an off-day — and that goes for anybody in the league.
‘Hearts were bang at it on sunday, so we’ve got to be aiming for the same. If we can bring it to every game, you never know what can happen.’
For Jags boss Archibald, there were mixed emotions as Hearts put four past Celtic, given that many already began to imagine the potential onslaught his side could face tonight.
But while the message was clear to his players about the anticipated Celtic response, Archibald is not fearful of his team being put to the sword. ‘I don’t think it is a fear, but there is a realisation that could happen,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen teams like Celtic get angry before, but there were weaknesses there (against Hearts) and I think that gives everyone a bit of hope that you can maybe hurt Celtic if you get everything right. ‘(Hearts) really rattled Celtic from the word go and they were relentless. You need to be brave, at the back end of the pitch.
‘People lift their game against the old Firm sometimes and, hopefully, we can do that, too.’