The news that bookmakers have slashed the odds on Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald swapping Firhill for Tynecastle may well have had some Jags punters in a sweat, but in terms of indicators of where a coach may end up, or whether he is even open to moving clubs, the next manager market is rarely a reliable source.
Archibald himself poured cold water on rumours sparked by the latest move on the exchanges when they were put to him yesterday, insisting he is in the dark about any potential interest in his services from Hearts.
“I have just been told about being linked with the Hearts job but I know nothing about it, so I’ve no comment to make,” Archibald said. “I don’t know anything about it.”
Succinctly put. While Archibald’s rather forthright denial of any contact from Hearts was definitive, it is unlikely to stop the rumour mill turning until there is a new man in the Tynecastle dugout.
For now though, Archibald has more immediate concerns. Chief amongst those is trying to get his side’s league campaign up and running, with no points accrued from their opening two fixtures. In fairness, they have faced a trip to Easter Road to take on a rampant Hibs outfit, and have hosted champions Celtic so far.
On the face of it, a trip to McDiarmid Park tomorrow afternoon doesn’t seem like a prime opportunity to break the Jags’ duck, but with five wins from their last six at the ground, including last week’s emphatic victory in the Betfred Cup, they will travel with justifiable hope.
“We are on no points and it is a hard place to be,” Archibald said. “We had a tough start but we want to get some points on the board as soon as possible.
“They are a form team who are top of the league and we know we have to be at our best to nullify them. Tommy (Wright) has said they have good players, they are not just a workman like team, because they have players of good quality like Michael O’Halloran, Stefan Scougall and David Wotherspoon.
“It will be a tough game, as soon as the cup game was finished we said this one would be an even tougher game. It always is when you play a team so soon. It’s happened to us a couple of times against them in the past too. We know how difficult it will be because they are full of confidence right now.”
Another source of optimism for Thistle should be their performance in going down narrowly to Celtic at Firhill last Friday night.
“We take a lot of positives from last week, especially as you seen how well Celtic performed the other night,” said Archibald.
“They didn’t cut us open and that was the most pleasing thing, they had to work for their chances and we stayed in the game.
“We had a great chance from Kris Doolan as well but we were better defensively because we were very poor in our first league game.”
So, a fair air of optimism around Firhill despite the two league defeats on the board so far. And Archibald’s mood has only improved further as he has watched his two new recruits, Conor Sammon and Miles Storey, settle in this week.
“I’m delighted to get Conor and Miles on board,” he said. “They only completed their medicals on Friday morning so I didn’t want to put them both in for the game on Friday night against Celtic.
“They will be two good signings for us and they aren’t a gamble because they know the league. They have been in for a week and they are getting to know the lads and they give us something totally different to what we have.
“Miles started the season well with Aberdeen, we have guys who are hungry to play and score goals.
“They weren’t playing at their old clubs so we are delighted to get them in. We had other targets, but the fact is they were fit, they had spells at other clubs in Scotland and we could offer them a platform to do well here.”
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