Friday 19th November, 2021 at 1:59pm
The management team’s written previews and reactions are presented by The Jags Trust. You can keep up to date with the latest from The Jags Trust by visiting their website, www.jagstrust.com.
It’s back to Firhill this Saturday for Partick Thistle as they take on Hamilton Accies in the cinch Championship. The Jags come into the game on a seven game unbeaten run in the league which has included two 4-0 wins over Ayr United and a 6-1 win over this weekend’s opponents. On the other hand, Stuart Taylor’s Hamilton side will be looking to end their current stretch of four away games without victory and extend the three point gap they currently have over Dunfermline in bottom spot. Jags manager Ian McCall spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the fixture:
“It’s a game we can go into with a lot of confidence. Last week’s win was a very pleasing one, especially the second half. I think the game was pretty tight before half-time and 2-0 flattered us a little bit but we came out for the second half and really controlled things which was excellent.
“As is always the case though, we can’t relax because we’ve got another tough game right around the corner. Hamilton had a difficult game at the weekend but prior to that they managed a couple of good draws so we’re not expecting it to be easy whatsoever.”
Expanding on that, Ian said he thinks it’ll be a very different game this time round compared to the one which the two sides contested at the Fountain of Youth Stadium last month.
“Look, that was a sort of one-off game that doesn’t come around very often at all. They had an off-night and we were fantastic which made for a great result from our perspective but I don’t expect anything like that this weekend.
“Looking at their results, they’re usually tight games when they play away from home. From our point of view, we haven’t attacked in the way we’d have liked in our last two home games so we want to get back to being creative at Firhill.”
Saturday’s Somerset shutout made it five on the spin for the Maryhill men and the gaffer is delighted to see his side in such good defensive form.
“We’re delighted with the run we’re on at the moment defensively. The numbers speak for themselves; one goal conceded in seven league matches and that one was when we were 6-0 up!
“We’d had a really settled unit at the back for a good five or six games there so the question was could we continue it with Lewis Mayo away with Scotland but Ciaran McKenna came in and did an excellent job.
“Jamie Sneddon’s been in great form recently but it was pretty quiet for him against Ayr and that’s testament to the work the rest of the team did to keep them away from our goal. Everyone in the team buys into the defensive side of things and that’s showing in the scorelines at the moment.”
To finish, McCall gave us the latest news in terms of squad fitness ahead of Saturday’s cinch Championship game.
“The team news is pretty much the same which is great for us. Darren Brownlie is still out of course as is Steven Bell but he did take part in some light training this week so fingers crossed there’s no aggravation and he can be available again in the not too distant future.”
Exclusive video interviews with Jamie Sneddon and Thistle assistant manager Neil Scally will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Hamilton, starting at 2:30pm – click here to tune in.
We will be providing a pay-per-view option, priced at £12, for any supporter who wishes to watch our livestream of the match – click here for more info.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
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