Match Preview
Defeat last weekend at Dens Park was without any shadow of a doubt a major blow to our promotion aspirations. With 12 games of the season remaining all that we can do now is try and win as many of those game as possible and see where that takes us come the season's end. Manager Ian McCall though, when he spoke to www.ptfc.co.uk ahead of training this morning, was looking no further than tomorrow's game with Ross County.
"I just want us to win this one game, never mind the remaining 12, and see where that takes us. In such a tight league if we were to defeat Ross County tomorrow then follow that up with wins against Queen of the South and Ayr United that would almost certainly take us into second position but our focus right now is firmly on tomorrow's game."
The manager has been a long time admirer of Ross County who he considers to be one of the best footballing teams in the First Division.
"Ross County are a good team and a big physically strong team. In Michael Gardyne I feel that they have one of the most talented players in the First Division and there is little doubt that they are in their present position on merit."
Collecting a much needed win tomorrow then will be no easy task but as the manager explains we go into the fixture well placed in terms of player availability.
"We have no injuries and no suspensions so we go into this fixture with a full squad to select from which for us is something of a bizarre situation."
Preparation, in another week of inclement weather, has been far from ideal this week.
"It's been a constant grind trying to get good training facilities not just this week but all season. It's hard enough getting a good grass surface to train on but those that we do use have either been frozen or waterlogged this winter. When you are trying to get players who have been injured back fit and sharp the lack of good training facilities is a real problem. In all my time as a manager I've never know a winter quite like this in terms of getting training organised. I'm sure my fellow managers would agree as this is a problem that is far from unique to ourselves and not one that we are using as an excuse in any shape or form."
While training has been a problem we did manage to arrange a bounce game with Hibs during the week.
"It was good to get a game and we won 3-2. Stephen McKeown came through the game and did really well for us which is a real boost as Stephen is an important player. It could be that Stephen will need another game before he is ready to start, we will just need to see. Martin Grehan scored twice in that game which is also very pleasing. Martin had been ill for about a week and a half which had held him back a little but there is every chance that he will be involved at some stage tomorrow."
Finally a word on the Firhill playing surface.
"It's going to be heavy tomorrow that much is obvious but the forecast is for it to dry up across the course of today so there shouldn't be any problems."
Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 0 4 4 8
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Liam Buchanan 12
Paul Cairney 8
Simon Donnelly 8
Mark Corcoran 4
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 February 20th 2010
Dundee 1, Partick Thistle 0
Ross County Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
4 1 0 17 2
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Michael Gardyne 11
Richard Brittain 9
Garry Wood 9
Steven Craig 8
Paul Di Giacomo 6
Paul Lawson 6
Scott Boyd 3
Scott Morrison 3
Martin Scott 2
Iain Vigurs 2
Alex Keddie 1
Stuart Kettlewell 1
Gary Miller 1
John Stewart 1
Steven Watt 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday February 13th 2010
Ross County 2, Dunfermline Athletic 2
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday October 24th 2010
Ross County 2, Partick Thistle 2
Teams
Ross County: McGovern, Miller, Morrison, Kettlewell, Watt, Keddie, Gardyne (Craig), Lawson (Di Giacomo), Wood (Vigurs), Brittain, Scott.
Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Archibald, Hodge (Erskine), Robertson, Maxwell, Cairney, Rowson , Buchanan (Doolan), Donnelly (Hamilton), Corcoran.
Scorers
Ross County: Gardyne (40), Lawson (69)
Thistle: Erskine (62), Buchanan (72)
Crowd: 2,369
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday February 27th 2010
Partick Thistle v Ross County
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 Queen of the South
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Ayr United
Morton v Dunfermline Athletic
Raith Rovers v Dundee
Match Officials
Referee: Colin Brown
Assistant Referees: John Gilmour and Stuart MacMillan
