Thistle know they must home in on Premiership safety, declares Edwards
PARTICK THISTLE could afford to lose their final two games of last season at home on an aggregate score of 11-0 and still swan off into summer to bask in the glow of high achievement. The hard work was done by the end of April, with Thistle a top-half team. Even Aberdeen scoring six at Firhill a year ago today did not stop the Partick fans singing.
‘That seems like a long time ago now,’ said midfielder Ryan Edwards as the venue prepares to be gripped by an entirely different atmosphere this afternoon — one of relegation tension.
‘Now we have to save this season,’ declared Edwards. ‘You want to be playing in the Premiership every season. I think the squad we have is good enough to do that.
‘I do not want to play in the Championship, so I’ll be doing all I can to make sure I avoid that next season.
‘It’s the biggest game in my career. The biggest game for everyone. Biggest game for us. Biggest game for Livingston. Every player, staff member and fan.
‘We can rectify this situation, it’s still in our hands. We’ve played better at home. We haven’t done well away. The fans are behind us here.’
From top six to 11th and down to the second tier is quite a tumble in 12 months, but Alan Archibald’s team and their poor performances through the campaign serve up no excuses for their predicament.
Even the second chance of the Play-off final is in real danger of being spurned. Their display on Thursday night probably merited a defeat greater than the 2-1 deficit they must overcome today. Thistle were drawn into going long to chase the game. Kris Doolan’s strike on ten minutes turned out to be their only attempt on target. By Edwards’ admission, Friday morning’s analysis at Firhill was an uncomfortable, agonising watch. ‘We played into their hands and that’s not the type of game we wanted to play,’ he added. ‘Credit to Livingston, they were much better than us. Hopefully, we can rectify that.
‘We knew it was going to be difficult. Livingston start games really well. They did that again against us. We were fortunate to go ahead when they were on top.
‘In the first 20 minutes, you need to earn the right to play. We did that — but we didn’t change it. We didn’t start to play our football.
‘We stayed with that mentality and never got out of it. We watched it back and saw where we went wrong. Hopefully, we can change that on a bigger pitch, which is better for us.
‘It was painful to watch back. There were a very small number of positives from that performance for us and a lot of negatives.
‘The two goals conceded were from throw-ins and Livingston were probably better than us in every aspect. That’s not a nice feeling.
‘It seems to be the Thistle way that we make it difficult for ourselves. We don’t keep clean sheets and we’re leaving it until the last possible moment to see what our fate is.
‘But I think this situation will bring the best out of us. It has not been a good season and we know that. ‘However, when we have needed a result, we have got one. I hope that can happen again against Livingston.’ The rush of high-intensity knockout games in such a short space of time have routinely taken a toll on Championship promotion contenders. Hamilton’s reserves of stamina somehow stuck around long enough to win a penalty shoot-out to drag down Hibs in 2014.
Rangers, Falkirk and Dundee United all failed to go the distance.
Thistle must hope Livingston have run their race and that there might be a Firhill factor at play to inspire a struggling side to an escape act.
‘They are an honest enough bunch of players, so they know they’ve not played at any sort of level in the first leg,’ said Archibald.
‘There was no surprise in how Livingston played. We knew how they were going to play.
‘It was about making sure we did the ugly side of the game. At times, we did. But we just didn’t do what we’re good at, passing the ball and moving.
‘We know we are fighting for our Premiership status. And Livingston are coming to take it. We need to make sure we are ready for that.
‘We need to score goals. We didn’t work their goalkeeper anywhere near enough. There’s a resilience and hunger that they want to do it right and make sure we stay in this league.
‘When we’ve needed a performance, we’ve tended to get it — and they have been at Firhill. So that is the positive. The players are comfortable in that environment.’