Match Preview
Ross County is by far way our longest away trip this season. As fate would have it both of our trips to Dingwall this season have to be made midweek with our first venture north coming tomorrow evening.
A Thistle win tomorrow would take us into second place in the league just a point behind St Johnstone albeit with a game more played. As such little is being left to chance in terms of preparation tomorrow. Stepping off the team bus after a long journey straight into the away dressing room at Victoria Park is clearly less than ideal. With that in mind the team will depart Firhill early tomorrow morning. The players will enjoy a leisurely lunch in a hotel in Inverness. Bedroom reservations have been made at the hotel for the afternoon so as to ensure the players are as relaxed as possible when they finally arrive, after a light meal at tea time, at Victoria Park.
There are, however, no matter how much thought that goes into the pre-match preparations, some eventualities that there can be little control over and Ian McCall has more than a little selection headache tomorrow with a number of players unavailable tomorrow for a variety of reasons as a frustrated manager revealed to www.ptfc.co.uk earlier today.
“Marc Twaddle, John Robertson, Damon Gray and Alan Archibald are all definitely out tomorrow night. Additionally there are major doubts surrounding both Willie Kinniburgh and Stephen McKeown. To further complicate things Craig Hinchcliffe’s pregnant wife is due to be induced tomorrow and it is naturally highly unlikely that he will make the trip to Dingwall tomorrow.”
“It’s a real blow that we are faced with a mini injury crisis just at a time when we have managed to get our season back on track with three wins in a row. Having as many as 7 players missing tomorrow means that we don’t have a huge number of players to choose from and youngsters Michael Robertson, Ryan MacBeth and Ryan Scully will travel up with us tomorrow. There is a chance that one at least will be on the bench.”
“It’s a bad time to have players missing and things won’t be any easier when we play Stirling Albion in the cup at the weekend. Marc Twaddle should be back in about a week and a half but he and the suspended duo of Willie Kinniburgh and Simon Storey will miss the cup-tie at the weekend.”
“For those coming in over the next couple of games it is an opportunity for them to try and force themselves into the starting eleven week in week out and I am confident that those players selected tomorrow will not let me down.”
