Match Preview
There is no escaping from the fact that the last couple of results, in particular last weekend's 4-1 reverse at home to Dunfermline, have been very disappointing. Sometimes the best thing after a bad defeat is to get back into action as quickly as possible. It has, however, been a long week ahead of tomorrow's match at Inverness but with the squad heading north to their Inverness base early this afternoon focus is now well and truly on getting back on track against a side that we've collected maximum points against this season.
Making it three wins from three league games tomorrow will be no easy task and it isn't made any easier by the absence of a number of important players as Ian McCall revealed to www.ptfc.co.uk just a short time ago.
"We knew that Alan Archibald and Paul Paton were going to miss this game through suspension but we will also be without Paul Cairney and Stephen McKeown because of injury and Simon Donnelly who also not be travelling because he is unwell. It's a bad time to be hit by injury and suspension and it makes selecting a team no easy task. I've a good set of players here though. A group of players who have been hurting badly over the last week and have provided a positive response in training this week. I've stressed to them this week that the important thing tomorrow isn't so much the actual result but the fact that I want to see them give absolutely everything that they have got. If we can get a positive result then we have Ayr United and Airdrie United in our next two matches and in this league you just never know what could happen. The really frustrating thing for me right now is the fact that we aren't 6-10 points better off. Given how we played in the first 17 games or so it's not unreasonable to have expected to have gathered more points that what we did."
"It's been a period of no little change at the club with a few departures and Willie Kinniburgh leaving on loan. It could be that Paddy Boyle and Kris Doolan will be joining Willie in leaving the club on loan at the start of next week. We have, however, managed to extend Steve Lovell's deal at the Club until the end of the season and that is something that I'm very pleased about. Although they missed a few chances against Dunfermline I thought Lovell and Liam Buchanan linked up well against Dunfermline and they got the opportunity to play together in a reserve match during the week. With the weather getting better we should get better access to grass pitches to train on and that can only benefit both Steve and Liam. There are goals in that partnership and when on form I think potentially there is no better strike force in the First Division."
"In addition to extending Steve Lovell's contract we have also signed, for a nominal fee, Martin Grehan from Stirling Albion and he will go into the squad for tomorrow's game. We've signed Martin for a couple of years and although we hope he will go into the team and score goals straight away we are really going to use the next three months to bed him in at the Club and get him used to full-time football again."
www.ptfc.co.uk will try and catch up with Martin from the Club's Inverness base later today so look out for the thoughts of Thistle's latest signing a little later.
Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 1 3 4 10
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Liam Buchanan 12
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 23rd 2010
Partick Thistle 1, Dunfermline Athletic 4
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 2 0 5 1
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Adam Rooney 12
Richie Foran 7
Danni Sanchez 6
Nauris Bulvitis 4
Jonathan Hayes 4
Robert Eagle 3
Dougie Imrie 3
David Proctor 3
Lee Cox 2
Grant Munro 2
Andrew Barrowman 1
Eric Odhiambo 1
Ross Tokely 1
Own Goals 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday January 23rd 2010
Airdrie United 0, Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday November 28th 2009
Partick Thistle 2, Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1
Teams
Thistle: Tuffey, Adams, Archibald, Hodge (McKeown), Robertson, Maxwell, Cairney, Rowson, Lovell, Donnelly (Erskine), Corcoran (Doolan).
Inverness: Esson, Tokely, Bulvitis, Munro, Golabek, Proctor (Cox), Sanchez (Odhiambo), Foran, Rooney, Hayes.
Scorers
Thistle: Adams (54), Lovell (69)
Inverness: Tokely(6)
Crowd: 2,353
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday January 30th 2010
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Partick Thistle
Prices
Adults £14
Senior Citizen £11
Student £11 (matriculation card required)
Child £11 (under 16 or under 18 if in full-time education)
Prices as per Inverness' official website.
Travel
Supporters Buses
Match Officials
Referee: David Somers
Assistant Referees: George Drummond and Roddy Cobb
