Saturday 14th September, 2013 at 2:11pm
We’ve almost reached the middle of September but we haven’t, as yet, had a Saturday home game. That will all change tomorrow afternoon when we welcome Aberdeen to Firhill with the international break, and a full fortnight without a game, only increasing the sense of anticipation surrounding the fixture.
When [link:HOME] spoke to manager Alan Archibald he was looking forward to seeing his side back in action.
“It will be good to get back into action tomorrow especially with it being such an attractive fixture. I saw Aberdeen in action earlier in the season when they recorded an impressive win away to Motherwell. On the evidence of that performance I would say that they are the best side that I’ve seen live this season. We will without doubt have to be at our very best tomorrow if we are to get the three points but I think that the fact that we came from behind to win at St Mirren should give the players belief. It should certainly give them the belief that they can come back from a similar situation. They set their standard against St Mirren but, to be fair, only in the first half against Motherwell have they fallen short of standard this season.”
Thistle went into the international break with a few injuries and the manager was able to give us an update on the injury situation.
“Everyone is more or less fit. Jordan McMillan isn’t match fit as he hasn’t played a full 90 minutes yet and he won’t be involved tomorrow. The only other doubt is Conrad Balatoni who picked up a hamstring injury at the start of the week; we’ll hoping he will be okay for tomorrow.”
Alan continued;
“Sean Welsh is fit and available as is Stuart Bannigan. I was delighted to see Stuart collect the Young Player of the Month award; it was well deserved. It was unfortunate that he had to pull out of the Scotland Under 21 squad after picking up an ankle injury. He reported to the under 21 squad with a swollen ankle and they took a look and sent him home. Stuart seems to have a problem with his ankles ever since he got injured last season. The way he plays, both in games and in training, he tends to pick up these kind of knocks.”
Alan went on;
“Having just about a full squad means I have a bit of a selection headache tomorrow but it is precisely the kind of headache that you want to have. You always need to pick your team with the opposition you are facing in mind in any case. It can be difficult to keep everyone happy but the spirit in the squad is excellent. I’m told that when we scored the winner against St Mirren it wasn’t just the players on the bench and on the bench that were celebrating. Those sitting in the stand not selected were also celebrating as if they had been on the pitch at the time.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 1 1 9 5
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Steven Lawless 3
Aaron Muirhead 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Kris Doolan 1
Christie Elliott 1
Ross Forbes 1
Kallum Higginbotham 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday August 31st 2013
St Mirren 1, Partick Thistle 2
Aberdeen Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
1 2* 2 4 5
* won 6-5 on penalties
Scorers Season 2013-2014
Niall McGinn 3
Willo Flood 1
Jonny Hayes 1
Mark Reynolds 1
Last Game
Scottish Premiership
Saturday August 31st 2013
Aberdeen 0, St Johnstone 0
Last Meeting
Scottish League Cup Third Round
Wednesday September 26th 2007
Partick Thistle 0 Aberdeen 2
Teams
Thistle: Hinchcliffe, McKinlay(Keegan 75), Archibald, Storey(Donnelly 66), Robertson, Twaddle, Rowson, Harkins, Murray(Gibson 55), Buchanan, Roberts
Aberdeen: Langfield, Hart, Foster, Considine, De Visscher(Smith 45), Nicholson, Severin, Clark, Smith, Young, Miller
Scorers
Aberdeen: Young(42), Considine(64)
Crowd: 3,337
Match Details
Scottish Premiership
Saturday September 14th 2013
Partick Thistle v Aberdeen
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Admission Prices
Other Premiership Fixtures
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 14th
Hearts v Celtic
Kilmarnock v Inverness Caledonian Thistle
St Johnstone v Hibernian
St Mirren v Dundee United
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15th
Ross County v Dundee United
Match Officials
Referee: John Beaton
Assistant Referees: Ross Haswell and Stuart McMillan
Fourth Official: Stephen Finnie
