Battlestationsfor theJagsasArchie bidstoendlongrun ofdefeatstoCeltic
PARTICK Thistle manager Alan Archibald has warned his players that Celtic will be approaching their match tonight in exactly the same manner as their Champions League clash at Manchester City.
Coming just three days after their creditable draw at the Etihad, you might expect that manager Brendan Rodgers would make changes to his side for tonight’s game.
But Archibald is under no illusions about the task his men face at Firhill this evening, no matter who is wearing the Hoops.
“I let the players watch them play Man City, and that’s the thing about how Brendan plays, whether it is Man City or Motherwell they approach the game in the same manner with the same tempo to their play,” Archibald said.
“That’s one thing we showed the players to make sure that they know they won’t come here taking it easy because it’s Partick Thistle. We know it will be the toughest challenge we face this season, they are in fine form.
“But we want to make it a battle and we want to make sure we use the home advantage as best we can.
“You take heart from the performance that Motherwell put in [against Celtic]. They caused them problems obviously and scored a few goals.
“We are at home as well, but we know what our levels have to be as well as our concentration, because we’ve gone out there and lost a goal after a minute or so before.
“We have to stay in the game and especially make sure we get a good start.”
Archibald has lost all 10 of his matches against Celtic as Thistle boss, but he doesn’t think that is down to any problems with his players’ mentality.
He rightly points out the difference in resources available to his Celtic Park counterpart, but that hasn’t dampened his belief that the Jags can pull off a shock tonight.
“The difference in budgets is there for all to see,” he said. “It makes it so, so tough. They’ve got a lot of quality in the side and I think the way that Brendan has strengthened typifies that.
“It’s testament to him how he is managing the squad. It’s always easy to when you’re winning games mind, they can chap your door all they want! If you haven’t won in six or seven then you might have a case to answer.
“He’s dealt with a big club before in Liverpool and is used to dealing with those situations.
“They probably have two teams that could win the league. He’s made changes in some games and in others he hasn’t, but we’ve just got to adapt to whatever they are doing.
“What you have seen is that they are all desperate to play, and you don’t seem to see many tantrums. They look like a collective unit, even the ones who step in.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re ready because it’s like-forlike in terms of the quality they are bringing in.
“It could be Leigh Griffiths coming in for Moussa Dembele or it might be both of them. We’ve just got to try and prepare the best we can and worry about ourselves as best we can.”
ARCHIBALD takes encouragement from the performance that Thistle put in against Rangers a couple of weeks ago, where they led until the closing minutes before lapses in concentration saw themt lose the game.
He recognises that his men can’tc afford to repeat that against a side who he sees as a level above the Ibrox outfit.
“It’s a learning curve,” he said.s “You recognise that when you play against the good teams you’ve got to go for 90-plus minutesm and you can’t stop.
“It was a good performance [against Rangers], it just missed that little bit at the end. If we get another performance like that we won’t be too far away hopefully.”h HAMILTON manager Martin Canning has urged his side to start killing teams off ahead of their visit to Inverness tomorrow.
His Accies side blew yet another lead at home to Partick Thistle last weekend, leaving Canning frustrated and his side stuck in the middle of the tightlypacked bunch of teams in the lower half of the table.
He admits that his men need to start developing more of a ruthless streak if they are to pull themselves out of trouble.
“It was another draw and we know we need to turn them into wins,” Canning said. “I told them on Saturday that just because you go ahead in a game, it doesn’t give you the right to win the game.
“You’ve got to push and something we’re not doing if we go one up is go two up, three up, four up.
“We’re probably looking more not to lose which means you can end up picking up draws and that’s what’s happening. So the message this week is hopefully start the game well, kick on and try and go on and win the game.”
The importance of three points against Inverness can hardly be underestimated, with matches against Celtic home and away as well as clashes with Aberdeen and Rangers before the Lanarkshire derby against Motherwell on Hogmanay lying in wait for Accies.
Canning though is heartened by the fact that their rivals around them in the table have similarly tough programmes ahead of the winter break.
“Every game’s important – if you look at the clubs who are round about us, pretty much all of them have a difficult run around Christmas,” he said.
“It’s about trying to pick up points wherever you can. Up at Inverness is a big game for us and we’re going up there with the intention of taking three points,” he added.