PARTICK THISTLE took the novel approach of holding a press conference in a Glasgow pizzeria, with slices of pizza and fried dough balls added to the usual diet of player and manager interviews.
It was quite a spread but Alan Archibald chose to stand aside and let others help themselves.
His restraint was understandable. The Partick Thistle manager had a lot on his plate during the international week and is still chewing much of it over. Archibald accepted an invitation to compare notes with the Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend, who has led the rugby club to second place in the Guinness PRO12 this season. Thistle are eighth in the SPFL Premiership table ahead of the visit of Aberdeen tomorrow.
A comparison between the teams' league positions is unsuitable - finishing eighth would be considered a success at Firhill - but Archibald would still draw parallels between the challenges the two sets of coaching staff face. His discussion with Townsend centred on the subject of players; the Thistle manager asking how his Warriors counterpart satisfies a 47-man first-team squad on a match day. Archibald's own pool is much shallower.
"I went down to meet Gregor just to see how they do stuff," Archibald said. "I saw them training and how they go about their business. Gregor is a good manager and a good manager is a good manager whether it be in rugby or football. There is a lot you can learn from him even if it is a different sport, a different culture.
"The [Thistle] sports scientist and physio went with me to have a look at the way they do things and I was just there to get a wee bit of feedback from to Gregor about how he manages his players. Where it's different is that he tells his players on a Tuesday who is playing at the weekend but we couldn't do that. We'd have players whose heads would be all over the place by the Friday."
Meanwhile, Scott Brown is itching as much as any of his Aberdeen team-mates to resume normal service at Firhill following their defeat to Celtic, which ended an excellent run.
Brown, 10 years with Cheltenham Town before joining the Pittodrie side in the summer, finds himself as the club's No.1 goalkeeper, after Jamie Langfield went through a difficult period in which he lost nine goals in four games.
Yet it was Langfield who took training when Jim Leighton, the goal-keeping coach, was on duty with the Scotland squad over the past two weeks. "It is difficult as only one of us can play," said Brown, "but Jamie has been brilliant. We both work hard. We have both been left out of the team during our careers. The important thing is how you react. Jamie is a credit to himself and if I am not working hard, training well and playing well he'll be straight back in."
Brown had four successive shut-outs before the loss to Celtic and is keen to assert his authority at Firhill, despite the Dons being without Shay Logan, red-carded for foul language to a match official following the Celtic game two weeks ago, and Willo Flood, who has a torn hamstring.
Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, said: "We've had a decent run with two defeats in 10 or 11 games. When you do have a defeat it's important you do bounce back and respond in the right way. Our boys have usually done that and I expect that to be the case on Sunday.
"I've been pleased with the majority of our play in the last wee while and having watched the recording of the Celtic game there was a lot to like about us."
