Match Preview
With just four games of the season remaining Thistle's promotion hopes are left, following last week's defeat at home to Queen of the South, hanging by a thread. The gap between St Johnstone and Thistle presently stands at 7 points and it will take a herculean effort from Thistle couple with some slips from St Johnstone to take the title to Firhill.
While there is a chance there is hope but there is no question that a maximum three points from our trip to Cappielow at the week are absolutely essential.
Collecting those three points, however, will not be easy. Morton are without doubt the form side in the division. Morton have not lost since a Kris Doolan goal helped Thistle to full points at Firhill back in February. That run of eight games unbeaten has taken them to third spot in the league and if extra incentive is required for them they know that victory against Thistle on Saturday would take them into second spot in the league.
Manager Ian McCall though was focusing entirely on the prospects of his own team when www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with him earlier today.
"We are pretty much working with the same 16 man squad that we had for last week's game. Both Stephen McKeown and Liam Buchanan have been progressing well this week and we have then both pencilled in for a return for the game with Livingston but Saturday's game is just a touch too early for them. Stephen and Liam aside everyone should be available for Saturday's game. We've been in this position of having little more than 16 players to pick from for some time now which brings its own frustrations but the contribution made by the players over the course of the season has been nothing less than outstanding."
"There have obviously been some poor performances this season none more so than last Saturday's against Queen of the South. To say that the players were gutted after that game would be something of an understatement. The reaction from the players since then though has been good. Training has been excellent this week and there is belief within the squad that we could still win promotion this season."
"Clearly St Johnstone are heavy favourites, as they have been for some time, to win the league but if this season has taught me anything it is that anything that can happen. If we can defeat Morton on Saturday then that would make us favourites to finish second in the league and put a little pressure on St Johnstone who play Queen of the South on Sunday. They then have to go to Dundee while we are at home to Livingston. We accept that winning promotion is unlikely but we have a duty to our supporters to keep striving for that until it is impossible to go up."
"Saturday's game is clearly going to be a very tough one. Morton are a strong, physical side and are obviously been on an excellent run recently. Our form away from Firhill has been better than our home form since the turn of the year which is a complete reversal of the first half of the season. Hopefully we can maintain that excellent away form on Saturday. In general this season the response to a bad defeat has been positive. We won at Ross County and Dunfermline immediately after losing at home to Clyde for example and it is a repeat of those kinds of performances that we will be looking for at Cappielow on Saturday."
Neither side have any suspension problems though Gary Harkins will play his last match before starting a two game suspension from April 25th.
Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 2 & nbsp; 1 5 4
Scorers Season 2008/2009
Gary Harkins 12
Stephen McKeown 7
Liam Buchanan 6
Kris Doolan 5
Scott Chaplain 4
Damon Gray 4
Ian Maxwell 4
Paul Paton 3
Simon Donnelly 2
Kevin McKinlay 2
Mark Roberts 1
John Robertson 1
David Rowson 1
Chris Turner 1
Marc Twaddle 1
Own Goals 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 11th 2009
Partick Thistle 0, Queen of the South 2
Morton Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 2 0 7 1
Scorers Season 2008/2009
Brian Wake 11
Peter Weatherson 10
Ryan McGuffie 7
Steven Masterton 6
Iain Russell 6
Erik Paartalu 4
Allan Jenkins 3
James Grady 2
Stewart Greacen 2
Ryan Harding 1
Jon Newby 1
Last Match
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 11th 2009
Livingston 0, Morton 2
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday 21st February 2009
Partick Thistle 1, Morton 0
Teams
Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Twaddle, Storey, Robertson, Archibald, McKeown (Chaplain), Rowson, Buchanan (McKinlay), Doolan (Donnelly), Harkins
Morton: Cuthbert, Walker, Shimmin, Greacen, Smith (Grady), Finlayson, Masterton, McGuffie (Paartalu), McAlister, Weatherson, Wake (Russell)
Scorer
Thistle: Doolan (49)
Crowd: 3,348
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 18th 2009
Morton v Partick Thistle
Prices
Adults £14
Concessions £9
Parent & Child £16
Under 16's £4
Weekend's Other Fixtures
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Clyde v Airdrie United
Livingston v Dundee
Ross County v Dunfermline Athletic
St Johnstone v Queen of the South (Sunday)
Match Officials
Referee: Anthony Law
Assistant Referees: Tom Murphy and Colin Steven
