Spirit of '71
Archibald is urging his team to emulate the Celtic-conquering Jags who lifted the League Cup
IT’S one of the League Cup’s most famous fixtures. But even before this week’s draw sent Alan Archibald’s Partick Thistle to Celtic Park in the last eight, the Firhill boss couldn’t escape talk of the 1971 final between the Glasgow teams.
The Jags heroes of 43 years ago who shocked Jock Stein’s giants to lift the cup — including Alan Rough, Jimmy Bone et al — were featured heavily in the programme for Thistle’s 1-0 home win over St Mirren on Tuesday night.
With his own team now in the latter stages, Archibald hopes to emulate the achievements of the last Partick side to win major silverware. And he has taken strength from their illustrious opponents’ poor recent record in the competition.
‘It’s funny because our League Cup programme was dedicated to the Thistle team who won the trophy by beating Celtic 4-1 at Hampden,’ said Archibald. ‘ Partick have a good history in the tournament and we’d love to follow the class of 1971 by going all the way, getting to the final and winning it.
‘This is our real chance to win a trophy and we’d love to do it. The Celtic game will be our cup final, that’s for sure, and it’s a match we will look forward to.
‘Of course we’d rather have had a home tie than an away match against the reigning Scottish Premiership champions. But teams have gone to Celtic Park and won in the recent past.
‘Clubs like Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Morton have all put them out of the League Cup in the last few years, so anything is possible.’
In the past three seasons, League Cup Final glory has electrified the streets a nd thoroughfares of Aberdeen, Paisley and Kilmarnock.
Now Thistle are dreaming of being another relatively fresh name on the trophy, after reaching the quarterfinals for the first time in 12 years.
Back in November 2002, Celtic were their opponents at the same stage, with Paul Lambert and Alex Burns trading goals at Parkhead before the hosts prevailed on penalties.
‘It’s great to get through because it’s been a while since Thistle were last in the quarters,’ said Archibald. ‘But unfashionable teams have won this competition. It’s one of the things I drum into the players in team talks. I stressed to them that if we could win two games we would be in a quarter-final.
‘And you just don’t know what you’re getting these days with Celtic as they have Europa League as well as domestic commitments and they may rest players due to their busy schedule. If they do that, it’s up to us to take advantage.
‘We want to get through to the semis but this is the hardest tie we could have got. But it’s great to go on a cup run like this as it keeps morale high. There would have been nothing worse than l osing back- to- back games against St Mirren.’
For now, however, Archibald must put all talk of the cup out of his players’ minds as they aim to stake their claim for a top-six finish in the Premiership by winning on the plastic pitch at Kilmarnock tomorrow. If we can string a run together we will be in the top half of the table,’ said the Jags boss. ‘And I will not allow my players to use the plastic pitch as an excuse.’
Partick could be in for a hard time at Rugby Park, however, and not just because of the artificial surface. Manager Allan Johnston has called on his Killie team to take their frustrations out on the visitors tomorrow after the bitter disappointment of a midweek League Cup exit to St Johnstone.
And Johnston says his players are still raging after referee Steven McLean disallowed a late goal by Michael Ngoo, which would have taken the tie into extra time, for an infringement. Calling on the Ayrshire side to channel their disappointment in a positive way in the league clash, Johnston said: ‘ The boys are all frustrated by the last result, especially after going down to 10 men — when Alexei Eremenko was sent off — and having a perfectly good goal chalked off.
‘We’ve got to bounce back and, if anything, that sense of i njustice probably helps — it fires you up.
‘However, we’ve also got to take our chances when they come — which is something we mostly didn’t do the other night. You need to score goals to win games and that’s maybe the only thing you could criticise us for.
‘We have to make sure we are clinical when we get in those positions. But there was a lot of good play and a lot of obvious positives and we were disappointed with the goal that wasn’t given.’
Killie are four points above Thistle but Johnston f eels the summer signings of midfielder Ryan Stevenson, left-back Jake Carroll, fellow defender Dan Seaborne and forward Nathan Eccleston mean the Jags are stronger than last season.
‘They are a good, passing team and have good players l i ke Kallum Higginbotham,’ he said. ‘And they have strengthened by bringing in Stevenson, a centre-half and a left-back as well. I’m sure they will be a big threat.
‘But we are at home and we have to make sure we win games like this.’