Match Preview
After Thistle's promotion push got bogged down in the Stark's Park mud last Saturday the importance in collecting a maximum three points from the visit of Dunfermline Athletic to Firhill is of paramount importance. Thistle's defeat last weekend plus Dundee's win against Dunfermline only serving to increase Dundee's lead at the top of the table. No side with any serious aspirations of catching Dundee can afford too many more slips between now and the end of the season.
So far this season Thistle have followed up any loss in the league with victory in the very next league match and that is a trend that the Thistle manager Ian McCall will naturally be keen to see continue tomorrow afternoon.
Last week his side were hit by a few late call offs and when www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with the manager the injury latest was the first topic of conversation.
"Alan Archibald and John Robertson have struggled a lit bit with injury this week but they have trained and should be absolutely fine for Saturday's game. Ian Maxwell missed last week's match at Raith Rovers but he is fit once again. Steve Lovell is touch and go at the moment. We will need to make a decision as to whether we risk him for this game or leave him out until next week at Inverness when he should be fine. Stephen McKeown is the only other player on the injury list at the moment but we are hoping that he will be available for the match with Inverness in a week's time."
With the end of January and the closing of the transfer window in sight the manager was also able to give us the latest news on the transfer front as well.
"Although he remains very much part of my long term plans we are still keen to try and get a loan deal arranged for Paddy Boyle. We feel that Paddy would benefit from playing regular games. Once Paddy goes out on loan that will mean that five players will have left the club recently and although we have brought in both Ryan Conroy and Greg Shields that still leaves us a little light in terms of numbers. We are still trying to add to the squad and I'm hopeful of being able to add one more to the squad before the end of the month and may even have someone in place ahead of tomorrow's game."
"Elsewhere everything if fairly quite. Jonny Tuffey's situation remains unchanged and once the transfer window has closed I will sit down with Jonny again and discuss the situation."
Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 1 2 8 7
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Liam Buchanan 11
Simon Donnelly 8
Paul Cairney 6
Mark Corcoran 3
Chris Erskine 3
Steve Lovell 3
Jamie Adams 2
Kris Doolan 2
Bryan Hodge 2
Jim Hamilton 2
Alan Archibald 1
Paul Paton 1
David Rowson 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday January 16th 2010
Raith Rovers 1, Partick Thistle 0
Dunfermline Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 2 2 12 8
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Andy Kirk 13
Willie Gibson 7
David Graham 4
Graham Bayne 3
Steven Bell 3
Joe Cardle 3
Own Goals 3
Steven McDougall 2
Nick Phinn 2
Alex Burke 1
Joe Cardle 1
Neil McGregor 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Sunday January 17th 2010
Dundee 3, Dunfermline Athletic 2
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday November 14th 2009
Dunfermline Athletic 3, Partick Thistle 1
Teams
Dunfermline: Fleming, Ross, McCann, Bell, McGregor, Dowie, Gibson, Burke (Holmes), Bayne, McDougall (Phinn), Graham.
Thistle: Hinchcliffe, Paton, Archibald, Adams (Hodge), Robertson, Maxwell, Cairney, Rowson (Erskine), Buchanan, Donnelly (Lovell), Corcoran.
Scorers
Dunfermline: McDougall (4), Gibson (40, 90)
Thistle: Cairney (47)
Crowd: 3,111
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday January 23rd 2010
Partick Thistle v Dunfermline Athletic
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults: £16
OAP/Full time Education/16-21: £11
Under 16s: FREE
Programme: £2.50
Other First Division Fixtures
Airdrie United v Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Queen of the South v Dundee
Raith Rovers v Morton
Ross County v Ayr United
Match Officials
Referee: Stephen Finnie
Assistant Referees: Raymond White and James Burns
