PARTICK THISTLE midfielder Ryan Edwards believes his team can match anyone in the league physically, it’s their mindset that needs to be improved if they are to drag themselves off the bottom of the table before next month’s Scottish Premiership winter break. Thistle currently lie bottom of the table but are level on points with Ross County, who visit Firhill for a bottom-of-the-table clash today.
Despite their midweek loss to Aberdeen, Edwards is confident though that his side are showing improvement and have the ability not only to defeat County this afternoon, but to embark on a sustained run of results which would lift Thistle leapfrog a few teams. “Our previous performances have made us defensively more solid and I think that’s shown,” he said. “Our home form has improved so we’re looking forward to this game. Psychologically, it’s massive to get off the bottom. At the moment, it looks like we do have to score first to get points so we’ll be focusing on that.”
Thistle’s performances are significantly poorer than last season, when the Glasgow team finished in the top six whereas this year, there appears little hope of the team matching that feat. Edwards admits that he is at a loss as to why this is, but there are, he believes, a number of contributing factors. “It’s a difficult question what the difference is,” the Australian internationalist said. “We need to be mentally strong because I think that physically, we’re as good as anyone in the league. But mentality-wise, you see us in games getting deeper and maybe from the outside, it doesn’t look like we’re working as hard as other teams or have the will to win and that’s maybe part of the reason that we’re down the bottom. Last season, you saw how we were fighting for games – how intense and energetic we were and maybe that’s lacked at times this season. And another thing is consistency – at the moment, we win one then lose the next two or three so consistency is massive.”
Thistle manager Alan Archibald is in agreement with Edwards as to the importance of the Ross County game, but he is optimistic that a number of players in his injury-plagued squad will return for today’s game. “Gary Fraser will still be missing but Martin Woods, Kris Doolan and Chris Erskine have got a chance for today,” he said. “It’s a massive game - it would be great to go into the winter break with a victory because it would put a good feel on things. We would still be in touching distance of everyone else, so that is our incentive for the game.”
Archibald admits to being somewhat surprised to be battling against County at the wrong and of the table and having worked alongside his opposite number, Owen Coyle, during their time at Dundee United, he is in no doubt that the Highlanders will pull themselves out of this hole, although he understandably hopes that County’s success does not come at the expense of his own side. ““I am surprised County have not kicked on because Owen is such an infectious personality,” he said. “He’s so enthusiastic for the game and he’ll get there in the end. He was talking this week about the balance of his squad and he has to sort that out. I am sure once he does that, he will be fine.”
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