Match Preview
Following Saturday’s 1-0 win against Airdrie United, Thistle’s 4th successive win, thoughts tonight once more turn towards cup football with Thistle hosting Peterhead in the Second Round of the ALBA Challenge Cup.
The Challenge Cup is a tournament that Thistle have a notoriously bad record in but when speaking to www.ptfc.co.uk Ian McCall made it clear that that is something that he is keen to see improve this season.
“The Challenge Cup has changed a little in format this season and we are keen to win the tournament for the first time in the Club’s history. We know that getting past Peterhead in the second round will be anything but easy though. They have made a good start to the season and are clearly a good side. We received a fright last midweek against Forfar Athletic in the Co-Operative Insurance Cup. It could be that that fright might work in our favour as we know with Peterhead in a league above Forfar that we can’t afford to be at any other than our very best if we hope to get through.”
Already operating with a small squad there are doubts surrounding a couple of players ahead of tonight’s tie.
“Stephen McKeown wasn’t in at all on Monday as he is suffering from a bug. Marc Twaddle meantime didn’t train on Monday and both players must be rated as doubtful.”
As ever the search for new players is ongoing.
“I feel that we are two, possibly three, players short at present. While there isn’t perhaps any visible sign of activity at present I can assure the Thistle fans that we are continuing to work extremely hard to bring new players in.”
Progressing to the last eight of this season’s Challenge Cup is unlikely to be easy. Peterhead have made a more than decent start to the season. They reached this stage of the competition thanks to an emphatic 6-0 win over Montrose with Craig Gunn, who is on loan at Balmoor Stadium until January, netting a hat-trick. Gunn followed that goal up with another in a 2-0 win at East Fife in the opening league game of the season. On Saturday Peterhead drew 1-1 at home to Arbroath with Stuart McKay rescuing a point for the home side with an equaliser just two minutes from the end.
Peterhead’s only defeat thus far this season coming in the Co-operative Insurance Cup when they lost 2-0 at home to Dunfermline Athletic.
In addition to a good start to the season Peterhead come to Firhill this evening defending a 100% record on their visits to Maryhill. Only in season 2005/2006 have the two teams met on the league business with Peterhead winning the two Firhill league clashes 3-1, despite a memorable Graham Dorrans goal and 1-0. They also won the first leg of the play-off final 2-1 although that story, from a Thistle perspective at least, had a happy ending.
