Hibs v Partick – Pre Match Quotes

Hibs entertain Partick Thistle in a match vital to both sides battle to beat the drop so who’s saying what ahead of the game.

Terry Butcher : ‘I feel as if there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the first time for a long while I’ve felt like that.

‘Normally if you lose a derby match it is all doom and gloom but I didn’t see it that way.

‘The way we played gives us great hope and optimism starting for the final three games.

‘There were lots of bright spells against Hearts, the second half in particular when it was just wave after wave of attack. How we didn’t get anything from the game I don’t know.

‘But at least we got a goal and we certainly got stuck in. The foul count was two to one in our favour, which is what our crowd wants.

‘The way things have been going, any chink of light we have to grab hold of and nurture. In the sea of despondency a lot of people say we are in, but I don’t, it certainly gives us optimism.’

Liam Craig : “I don`t know if one win would be enough because it is so tight. But we want to win all three, starting with tomorrow. A victory over Partick would give us a good platform for the rest of the week.

“All these games are the proverbial six-pointers as you can not only do yourself a lot of good but inflict a fair bit of harm on others. But we can only concentrate on ourselves.

“It`s in our hands, we have three to play and if we win them all I think we`ll finish seventh. We can`t affect what other teams do but it`s in our hands and if we were to end up in the play-off we`d have no-one to blame but us.”

Scott Robertson : “We`ve only won one game since we beat Hearts in January but I can`t put a finger on why we haven`t kicked on from that win.

“It`s just obviously not been good enough.

“We haven`t scored enough goals and kept enough clean sheets and it`s a really bad combination, so we need to focus on keeping a clean sheet. If you don`t lose goals you don`t lose games so that would be a good start.

“If there was a formula to follow everybody would be successful it`s not as easy as that. The manager has been working hard, listening to a lot of what we`ve had to say, pulling advice from other people who have been in similar situations and trying to find the best solution”

Alan Archibald : ‘You will probably see a different Hibs,’ he said.

‘My players have been warned. There is nothing worse in football than a wounded animal.

‘When people keep on putting them down and putting them down, it gets a player’s back up and the manager’s back up.

‘We will be very aware that Terry will have them right up for it.

‘I was at the derby last week and they were probably the better team but they lost out to two set-plays.

‘I thought they came out with a great deal of fight and desire to try to keep their team in the league and I think they will show the same this week because everyone seems to be writing them off.’