Friday 16th August, 2019 at 12:52pm
This weekend sees Thistle move away from Ladbrokes Championship action as they prepare to take on Ross County in the Betfred Cup. The Energy Check Stadium at Firhill is once again the venue as Thistle look to put a poor second half performance against United behind them and book their place in the quarter finals of this season’s Betfred Cup campaign.
In a switch to the usual proceedings, the Jags assistant manager, Brian Kerr, spoke to ptfc.co.uk to preview the fixture and give his thoughts on where the team was in terms of preparation.
“We’re very confident. Confidence is high as we look to book a place in the quarter final of the Betfred Cup. The boys are desperate to put right Friday night because we all know it wasn’t good enough. We’ll need to be at our best though because County have clearly showed just how good they can be already this season.
“It has been a frustrating start to the season for us because we have really struggled to get the consistency we need through the 90 minutes. We’ve shown in spells, like the first 45 minutes against Dundee United, just how good we can be but the challenge now is to get that through the whole game and start taking all three points from these matches.
“It’s not an easy thing to work on on the training pitch but we are close to having a very good side and if we can work together to take that final step then there could be some really exciting times ahead. We just need to get that belief into the players, a belief that they can win these games and that they are capable of putting in top performances for a full match.”
While many would have seen recently promoted Ross County as a “good” draw Kerr didn’t see it that way, insisting that County would put up as stiff a challenge as anyone else in the competition.
“We can’t take County for granted in any way, shape or form. They won the league last season for a reason. They’re incredibly well organised and always have been – we saw that last season. We went to see them play Hearts at the weekend and, to be honest, that was probably game they should have won. We know they’ll come here and be a real danger and we have to be ready for a very tough game or we won’t be in the hat for the next round, it’s as simple as that.
“I think County are a team that a lot of clubs can learn from in this division. They just had a way of winning games regardless of whether they were playing well or not. As a group they just knew how to get through 90 minutes and come out the end with a victory. They were ruthless and well organised but most of all they made sure that pretty much every game they played they came out of having picked up points.”
With the Betfred Cup offering the prospect of a pre-Christmas trip to Hampden, Brian is only too aware of how much of an early season boost a decent cup run could provide to the Thistle players.
“The way the Betfred Cup is structured means you could find yourself in a quarter final having only played a couple of league games. It’s a shot sharp competition but it can be a real catalyst for your season. A decent run in any competition and a trip to Hampden is enough to lift everyone at a football club, the players, the staff, the fans – everyone. That’s what football is about and that’s where we want to be, without a doubt. For the team a win will give us a massive confidence boost and a massive boost in belief and that’s exactly what we’ll be aiming for on Saturday.”
Finally the Jags assistant gave a positive update with his team news.
“In terms of our team news it is very much as you were. The long term guys are still out but we haven’t picked up any fresh knocks so we’ll go into the match without any additional concerns.”
A more in-depth video interview with Thistle manager, Gary Caldwell, is available to watch on JagZone now as well interviews with Joe Cardle and Alex Jones.
Jagzone members will also be able to watch extended highlights of the game.
Can’t make it to the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill? Jagzone members can listen to live audio commentary of the match. JagZoneLIVE begins at 14:45 tomorrow.
For a full list of all the great content you can access from just £5.99 per month as a Jagzone member, click here.
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