Match Preview
The start of another Scottish Cup campaign is almost upon us. In each of the last three seasons Thistle have reached the last eight of Scotland's premier cup competition, with some memorable moments along the way. Who present, for example, will forget the euphoria that greeted Damon Gary's goal that gave us an all too brief lead at Ibrox last season? Or the excitement of the penalty shoot out win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle two seasons earlier?
It's now all about creating new Scottish Cup memories however and the road to a hoped cup final date in May at Hampden Park begins with a trip to Second Division Stirling Albion.
The Scottish Cup is competition dear to the heart of Thistle manager Ian McCall as he revealed while in conversation with www.ptfc.co.uk
"The Scottish Cup is a very special tournament. Everyone involved in football be they player, manager or supporter dreams of cup glory. Teams from out with the SPL have done very well in the Scottish Cup in recent seasons and we would like to continue that trend in this season's competition. It will, however, be no easy task getting past Stirling Albion on Saturday and I would urge as many Thistle fans as possible to make the trip to Forthbank, create as much noise as possible and hopefully see us through to the next round as we embark upon another Scottish Cup adventure."
Thistle's task of progressing to the Fourth Round in the New Year isn't made any easier by the non-availability of a number of players.
"Willie Kinniburgh and Simon Storey carry suspensions forward from last season's tournament and they will miss the game. That just serves to increase our defensive problems. In addition to Kinniburgh and Storey, John Robertson and Marc Twaddle are both definitely out. It's obviously less than ideal to have so many players missing from the one area of the park and we will need to shuffle the pack accordingly for the trip to Stirling."
Nor are the above players the only ones that will miss Saturday's game.
"Damon Gray and Stephen McKeown are also definitely out. I think that all the Thistle fans that travelled to Ross County on Tuesday would have noticed that Stephen was well short of being 100% fit. That's why he was taken off at half-time and it is to his credit that he played through the pain barrier for as long as he did on Tuesday. Paul Paton was another that was less than fit on Tuesday as he was suffering badly with a heavy cold."
With others missing The Gaffer has had no option but to draft in others from elsewhere in their place and he was able to give us some surprising, but no less welcome, team news.
"Coming into the squad for the game are youngsters Michael Robertson and Ryan MacBeth and Club Captain Alan Archibald."
"We do have problems for the game with Stirling particularly at the back. It's unfortunate that just when things were moving in the right direction we encounter these problems but we need to just need to get on with things and not complain. Besides I have every faith in the personnel that I do have at my disposal for Saturday. The good things is that none of the injuries are likely to keep the players out for much longer and I'm not too far away from having a full squad to select from for the first time in many months."
There are a number of familiar faces in the Stirling Albion set up. Stirling have been managed for the last six seasons by Allan Moore who during his season's stint as a player at Firhill played 21 times, scoring once, as Thistle won the Second Division title in season 2000/2001. On his coaching staff as Forthbank is Roddy Grant who scored 20 times from 75 appearances as a Partick Thistle player.
Saturday's tie will be the fifth time Thistle and Stirling Albion will have met in the Scottish Cup. The most recent encounter took place in January 2006 when a Paul Ritchie goal was enough to see Thistle squeeze home 1-0 at Forthbank.
In general Thistle hold the upper hand against Stirling in the Scottish Cup. In addition to the win referred to above Thistle have won three of the four other Scottish Cup encounters. Stirling's sole success against Thistle coming in the Second Round of the 1962 competition when they recorded a 3-1 win.
Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 0 2 6 5
Scorers Season 2008/2009
Stephen McKeown 7
Gary Harkins 5
Damon Gray 4
Ian Maxwell 4
Liam Buchanan 2
Scott Chaplain 2
Simon Donnelly 1
Kevin McKinlay 1
Paul Paton 1
Mark Roberts 1
John Robertson 1
Chris Turner 1
Marc Twaddle 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Ross County 1, Partick Thistle 0
Stirling Albion Sats
Current Form - Last Fives Games
W D L F A
1 2 2 8 9
Scorers Season 2008/2009
Ian Harty 4
Martin Grehan 3
John O'Neill 3
Andy Graham 2
Craig Molloy 2
Nathan Taggart 2
Own Goals 2
Liam Corr 1
David McKenna 1
Paul Murphy 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League Second Division
Peterhead 1, Stirling Albion 1
Match Details
The Homecoming Scottish Cup Third Round
Stirling Albion v Partick Thistle
Saturday November 29th 2008
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Charlie Richmond
Prices
Adults: £15.00,
Concessions (senior citizens, kids and students):£10.00.
