ARCHIBALD AIMS TO END ‘RIDICULOUS’ RUN AGAINST BHOYS

THE last time Partick Thistle beat Celtic, Alan Archibald was a teenage boot boy in charge of carrying hampers and laying out the Jags kit. Doing his duties at Hampden Park, while Parkhead was upgraded, the-then 17 year old was preoccupied with not getting on the wrong side of formidable players like Steve Pittman, Chic Charnley and Alan Dinnie. Fast forward nearly a quarter of a century and Archibald, as manager, carries the hopes and dreams of the Thistle fans tomorrow as they aim to record their first win against Celtic in 29 attempts. The Thistle boss finds that barren run ‘ridiculous’. But he hopes new heroes emerge at Celtic Park in the Scottish Cup tie, emulating the team of May 1995 who won 3-1 courtesy of goals from Roddy Grant and a Wayne Foster double. ‘It’s ridiculous the amount of time since we last won a game against Celtic,’ said Archibald. ‘That day at Hampden in 1995 is a long time ago — too long. I don’t remember much about the game apart from doing the kit and all the players coming in happy afterwards. ‘It was a good group of players at that time. Mental, but good. We had the likes of Steve Pittman, Chic Charnley and Alan Dinnie — and you didn’t want to get on the

wrong side of them. If you didn’t have their boots ready, they’d let you know about it. ‘But it’s different now. Society has changed a bit. ‘But our record against Celtic is disappointing and, hopefully, we can put it right this weekend. ‘That is the challenge for our players: to try and be a hero and go down in history. A win would be particularly huge as it’s a Scottish Cup tie.’ Invincible in Scotland under Brendan Rodgers last season, Archibald (right) has been heartened to see Celtic losing to Kilmarnock and Hearts this season. He would dearly love to be the manager who masterminds the first home domestic defeat of Rodgers’ Parkhead tenure. ‘We’ve produced decent performances at Celtic Park but that counts for nothing,’ he said. ‘But it does give a little bit of hope to see the likes of Kilmarnock beating them last week. I think the rest of the teams deserve a bit of credit for upping their game against Celtic this season. ‘I know they’ve only lost two games but the games have been closer. It’s a better league this season. It’s tougher. You can see the top five teams pulling away a little bit in terms of budget and then the rest behind that are all pretty close. ‘But it’s down to us to bridge that gap any way we can.’ Archibald, though, is wary of Celtic having a point to prove after their surprise loss at Rugby Park last weekend. ‘There might be a backlash,’ he nodded. ‘We played Celtic the last time when they lost their unbeaten run to Hearts at Tynecastle and we will be expecting them to be looking to put that bad result behind them again. ‘I’d rather be playing someone outwith our own league on Scottish Cup weekend but the cup is a welcome distraction and we will embrace the game. ‘We want to get through to the next round. The cup is go for broke, so we will go for the win.’