Archibald salutes Thistle spirit

The Maryhill club won 2-0 courtesy of Stephen O'Donnell's first-half opener and Jaroslaw Fojut's own goal, which put them in firm command against Jackie McNamara's off-form United.

Archibald said: "We got a reaction from the lads.

"I think it was badly needed because we had a couple of terrible results in recent months. So we're delighted with how the lads reacted.

"I thought overall we deserved the win. It was a great opening goal from Stephen O'Donnell. We had a chance before that too which we didn't take.

"But it was a great opening goal as I thought the chance might have been missed because Lyle Taylor might have whipped the ball across to Steven Lawless.

"The defence have had a lot of stick. It was probably the strongest part of our game during the first half of the season. However, in the second half of the season we've lost a lot of goals.

"They've been silly goals too, by playing in the wrong areas. But here it was different as our defence was outstanding."

United manager McNamara did not hide the fact his side will need to show a big improvement in time for next Sunday's Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with Celtic at Tannadice.

McNamara said: "We will have to play a lot better than we did here against Celtic.

"We were disappointed with the goals we lost, obviously.

"It's all down to mentality and what better way to do it than in a cup quarter-final tie against Celtic.

"I thought we had one or two still feeling the effects of playing so long on Tuesday night against Inverness with just 10 men.

"We had a couple of chances to get back into it but all round it was quite a flat performance, like last Saturday against St Johnstone.

"It was disappointing because I had wanted the same energy and commitment as Tuesday night and didn't get that. But we have to move on and be positive."