Match Preview
Tomorrow afternoon we welcome Raith Rovers to Firhill for the first time since January 2nd 2006 when a Stephen McConalogue goal gave Thistle a 1-0 win. That fixture took place in the Second Division, tomorrow's is a match between two teams challenging at the top of the First Division.
After training yesterday www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with manager Ian McCall and he looked ahead to tomorrow's game.
"Last week we drew 2-2 at Ross County and a win tomorrow against Raith Rovers tomorrow will allow us to look back at that as a good result. Collecting three points tomorrow though will be anything but easy. Raith Rovers have done really well since winning promotion and are in the group of five teams at the top that have started to break away from the rest, albeit Inverness and Dunfermline have been picking up points of late. There is little doubt in my mind that Raith Rovers are in the position that they are at the moment on merit. We had them watched in their fixture with Dundee and the reports that we got said that they played very well indeed and at least merited a point."
"I know that Raith have a few injuries at the moment but I've no doubt that they have cover for those players that are injured and that they will make it very tough for us. That said the game is at Firhill and our record here at Firhill so far this season has been excellent and if we play at our close to our potential then this is a game that we are more than capable of winning. It is inevitable that over the course of a long hard season that we will hit a wee slump at some point but although we lost Dundee I don't think we have produced a poor performance in our last seven or eight games. We will naturally be striving very hard to maintain that form in front of what we are hoping will be a large Firhill crowd this afternoon."
"We are going into the game in good shape and I think that for just about the first time since I became manager here I have a full squad to select from. Paddy Boyle was our only absentee last week but he has trained all week. We didn't risk him during Tuesday's reserve game because the pitch wasn't in the best of condition and it was for that reason that we also took Chris Erskine and Jim Hamilton off at half-time."
"In addition to having a full squad to select from I am working very hard at bringing in two new players albeit they won't be on long contracts. While much talking remains to be done I am hopeful that one may even be in place in time for tomorrow's game and that the other piece of business will be concluded at the start of next week."
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 1 1 9 6
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Liam Buchanan 10
Simon Donnelly 5
Paul Cairney 3
Mark Corcoran 3
Chris Erskine 3
Kris Doolan 2
Bryan Hodge 2
Jim Hamilton 2
Alan Archibald 1
David Rowson 1
Last Game
Saturday October 24th 2009
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Ross County 2, Partick Thistle 2
Raith Rovers Stats
Current Form - Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 0 3 4 5
Scorers Season 2009/2010
Iain Wiliamson 4
Gregory Tade 3
Allan Walker 3
Damian Casalinuovo 1
Iain Davidson 1
Laurie Ellis 1
Mark Ferry 1
Dougie Hill 1
Grant Murray 1
Johnny Russell 1
Darren Smith 1
Last Game
Saturday October 24th 2009
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Dundee 2, Raith Rovers 1
Last Meeting
Saturday September 12th 2009
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Raith Rovers 1, Partick Thistle 1
Teams
Raith Rovers: McGurn, Wilson, Ellis, Campbell, Hill (Davidson), Murray, Williamson, Walker, Casalinuovo, Tade (Ferry), Smith (Sloan).
Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Corcoran (Doolan), Maxwell, Robertson, Archibald, Cairney, Rowson (Hamilton), Buchanan, Donnelly (Hodge), Erskine.
Scorers
Raith Rovers: Casalinuovo (67)
Thistle: Doolan (83)
Crowd: 2,370
Match Details
Saturday October 31st 2009
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Partick Thistle v Raith Rovers
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults: £16
OAP/Full time Education/16-21: £11
Under 16s: FREE
Programme: £2.50
First Division's Other Fixtures
Airdrie United v Ayr United
Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Morton
Queen of the South v Ross County
Match Officials
Referee: Brian Winter
Assistant Referees: Brian McGarry and Brian Templeton
