Jags warned to beware early onslaught from champions

Boss Alan Archibald has warned his Partick Thistle side to be ready from the first whistle against Celtic at Firhill tonight.

The treble-chasing Hoops have gone 44 domestic games unbeaten since the start of the season and show no signs of slowing down.

Brendan Rodgers’ side showed their prowess against secondplaced Aberdeen at Pittodrie last Friday when they raced into a three-goal lead after only 11 minutes, before running out 3-1 winners.

Thistle are one of the few sides to have taken anything at all from Celtic this season in a 1-1 Premiership draw last month. And while Archibald would dearly love to go one better, he believes his side will first of all have to withstand a hightempo start from the visitors.

He said: “We did well to get a point that night. You need to tick every box, you need eight or nine guys playing at the top end of their game, your goalkeeper to produce good saves and take your chances and we did that.

“But in the first half they nearly blew us away, we couldn’t touch them but the second half was much better.

“We caused them a few problems. But we touched on that today with the lads and went over that with them, we can’t afford to start that way.

“You saw the way they blew Aberdeen away in the first 15 minutes on Friday night.

“I think they are sometimes better away from home, they are a bit more dynamic and go for the jugular so we need to make sure we start well and are well in the game.

Archibald hopes Mustapha Dumbuya will be fit after a knee strain kept him out of the weekend defeat by St Johnstone while Celtic captain Scott Brown returns from suspension.

Alan Archibald: demanding a good start from Thistle.