Match Preview
Thistle aim to start the season with a fourth successive victory tomorrow when they travel to face Airdrie United in their first away fixture of season 2008/2009.
After opening the league season with a 1-0 win against Dunfermline Athletic changes were made to the side for the midweek Co-Operative Insurance Cup tie with Forfar Athletic. With Thistle anything but convincing in edging their way through to the next round courtesy of a 4-3 win after extra-time it remains to be seen what changes Ian McCall has in mind for tomorrow’s fixture.
www.ptfc.co.uk was able to catch up with Ian earlier today and he shared some of his thinking ahead of tomorrow’s match.
“We’re still operating with a squad with just 16 fit players at the moment and those 16 will make up the squad for tomorrow’s game and I’ll add a couple of the kids to the squad as well. We have the two long term absentees and Mark Roberts missing. Mark is still set to be out for a couple of weeks. It’s more likely to be after that game but we wouldn’t rule him out of the Queen of the South game just at the moment.”
The manager was able to provide us with an update on the progress of Liam Buchanan.
“Liam had his operation on Tuesday and the surgeon reckons that he should be able to return to full training in about 3 weeks. We’re just going to wait and see how things go but it would be a real boost to get Liam back within that time frame.”
In the meantime the search for new players continues.
“Going into a season with just 16 fit players is far from ideal and is something that I’ve never done before. It leaves us walking something of a tight rope in respect of further injuries and I’m naturally desperate to add more players to the squad but it has to be the right players. We simply can’t sign players just for the sake of it.”
Although absent ill from Tuesday’s game with Forfar the manager has had time to review the action on video.
“We made it difficult for ourselves, the first and third goals were just crazy, but we made lots of chances and thoroughly deserved to win. With the previous manager coming down, albeit he wasn’t there, I always thought that the tie had the potential to be a real banana skin and then with myself taking ill that didn’t help either. I’m just delighted that Gerry Britton and John Henry got us through to the next round.”
And so to tomorrow’s game.
“It’s going to be a really hard game that’s for sure. I think it is the type of game that the fans of both teams really enjoy and there should be a cracking atmosphere with hopefully Thistle bringing through a really big travelling support.”
Despite losing in last season’s play-off final to Clyde Airdrie United find themselves in this season’s First Division as a result of Gretna’s demise. They have, however, made more than a decent start to the season.
On the opening day of the season they recovered from a two goal deficit against Dumbarton to win 3-2 in the Challenge Cup. That was followed up by a credible 0-0 draw at Queen of the South in the opening league game before recording an excellent 3-2 win at Ross County midweek in the Co-Operative Insurance cup. Their tie, just as ours against Forfar did, going to extra-time.
There is a strong Thistle connection in the Airdrie United squad. Former player, Jimmy Boyle is on the coaching staff with former captain Marc Smyth a feature of the Airdrie United squad in the last couple of the seasons. Also included in their ranks are Paul Di Giacomo, on loan here at Firhill in the first half of last season, and he has started the season with a bang with 3 goals including a double against Ross County on Tuesday night. Simon Lynch who was a pre-season trialist with Thistle during the summer has signed for Airdrie United and anot
her former Thistle trialist, playing against Peterhead in August 2005, Stuart Noble is also part of the Airdrie United squad and he too has been on the score sheet this season.
