Partick boss Alan Archibald takes inspiration from Motherwell before Celtic game
Partick Thistle will take inspiration from Motherwell's performance against Celtic when they take on the Ladbrokes Premiership champions on Friday night.
Celtic maintained their unbeaten domestic record and made it 37 points from a possible 39 when they won 4-3 at Fir Park last weekend, but Motherwell gave them a serious fright.
Louis Moult put Motherwell two up after latching on to a diagonal ball from Stephen McManus and then Ross MacLean's cross after the young winger had won the ball off Mikael Lustig
And the hosts went 3-2 up before Celtic won the game late on.
And Thistle manager Alan Archibald saw enough to give his side some ideas and hope for their first match against Brendan Rodgers' Celtic.
"We want to make it as tough a night for the champions as we can," he said
"We take heart from the way Motherwell played last week and got three goals.
"I think Brendan spoke about rotating players, and maybe they will do that, they made a couple of changes last week
So we are just hoping there is a wee bit of unsteadiness there in relationships because, when he rotates his squad, it's very much like for like in terms of quality
There is not a lot of weakness there.
"We took heart from the way Motherwell played and hopefully we can do something similar."
Skipper Abdul Osman added: "We have looked back on the video and seen all the stuff Motherwell did to unsettle them, and we have been practising on that and hopefully we can do something close to that."
The Jags have not won in their last seven home games but they came close against Rangers two weeks ago, going down 2-1 to two late goals from Joe Dodoo.
Archibald said: "We made it a battle against Rangers, and you want to do that at home
That's the only blueprint we will take
Every team you play against are totally different and Rangers are not the same as Celtic by any manner of means
They are different in set-up and the style of play."
Celtic maintained their unbeaten domestic record in Erik Sviatchenko's absence last weekend against Well and the ill Dane went through the range of emotions before Tom Rogic hit a last-minute winner.
"It was a bit tough," he said
"I was up and down, up and down with my tea
It was perfect, it was just great that we could bounce back.
"Some games we have won with big figures, some games have been really tight, this was the first game where we were really, really challenged, being two goals down
We have shown we are capable of different mental styles."
James Forrest is a major doubt for the Hoops after the Scotland international went off with a tight hamstring during the Champions League draw with Manchester City on Tuesday.
Scott Sinclair (hamstring) and Kieran Tierney (ankle) remain sidelined.
Source : PA
Source: PA