Saturday 29th December, 2012 at 9:17pm
The curtain will come down on the football in 2012 at the end of tomorrow’s game at Airdrie United. 2012 has been in the most part an excellent year for Thistle and a Jags victory tomorrow will all but confirm that we will end the year at the top of the First Division with our focus very much on a spot in next season’s SPL.
There was disappointment of course on Wednesday afternoon when defeat by Morton let an opportunity to really press home our advantage at the top of the league slip by. That means that there is a little extra significance surrounding tomorrow’s game; especially with Morton and Dunfermline playing each other. It’s vital, therefore, that we bounce back from Wednesday’s defeat with all three points at Airdrie tomorrow.
We will be without the services of Ross Forbes who will serve his one game suspension tomorrow following his red card on Wednesday and manager Jackie McNamara, after this morning’s training session, was able to provide us with the rest of the bang up to date team news.
“Stephen O’Donnell is definitely out and we’ll need to organise for him to have a scan on his ankle. We’ll need to make a decision on Sean Welsh as well. It was eight weeks that he was out for and he hasn’t done too much in that time. He’s obviously desperate to play and doesn’t want to miss out on any more games.”
Jackie continued;
“Mark McGuigan is making good progress with his injury and while tomorrow’s game comes just a little too soon for him we hope that he will be back in contention for a place in the squad for the match with Hamilton next Wednesday.”
“It’s very important that we bounce back from defeat on Wednesday with a victory in this game. It’s a big game for us but they are all big games. One thing that will be really important is that we keep eleven players on the park. We feel that Ross Forbes’ red card on Wednesday was harsh, especially after watching the video of the game, but with the system that we play we need to keep a full team on the park irrespective of whether we think we have been harshly treated or not. Things that go against you can prove to be really significant as I think Wednesday’s game showed. It was disappointing the way that game ended up as we had an opportunity to move six points clear of Morton with a game in hand; now they are level on points with us.”
As previously mentioned, Morton and Dunfermline play each other tomorrow but the manager isn’t planning on paying too much attention to events elsewhere.
“It doesn’t matter what happens in other games. It’s what we do that is important and we know that we have the squad of players that can win games and win us the league.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
2 0 3 6 6
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Steven Lawless 10
Chris Erskine 8
Steven Craig 7
Kris Doolan 7
Stuart Bannigan 4
Ross Forbes 3
Aaron Muirhead 2
Aaron Sinclair 2
Sean Welsh 2
Conrad Balatoni 1
Christie Elliott 1
Stephen O’Donnell 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Wednesday December 26th 2012
Partick Thistle 1, Morton 2
Airdrie United Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 2 3 2 10
Scorers Season 2012-2013
John Boyle 7
Paul Di Giacomo 3
Nathan Blockley 2
Gregor Buchanan 2
Alan Cook 2
Josh Watt 2
Own Goals 2
Jamie Bain 1
Ryan Donnelly 1
Gavin Griffin 1
Willie McLaren 1
Kieron Stallard 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Wednesday December 26th 2012
Hamilton Accies 3, Airdrie United 0
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday October 20th 2012
Partick Thistle 7, Airdrie United 0
Teams
Thistle: Fox, O’Donnell, Bannigan, Paton, Muirhead, Balatoni, Lawless (Slane), Welsh, Craig (Doolan), Forbes, Erskine (Elliott).
Airdrie United: Arthur, Hart, Cook (Evans), Buchanan, Lilley, Stallard, Bain (McLaren), Blockley, Jack Boyle, Donnelly (Sally), Watt.
Scorers
Thistle: Erskine (4 & 45), Muirhead (11), Lawless (30), Welsh (42), Doolan (57), Forbes (80)
Crowd: 2,545
Match Highlights
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday December 29th 2012
Airdrie United v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults £16
Concessions (over 60s, students) £10
Disabled and Carer £10 (should be pre-ordered from Airdrie United)
Child (under 16) £7
Parent and Child £20
Travel
How to get there
Rail: The nearest train station is Drumgelloch.
Supporters’ Buses
Match Officials
Referee: Alan Muir
Assistant Referees: Alan Mulvanny and Sean Carr
Other First Division Fixtures
Falkirk v Dumbarton
Morton v Dunfermline Athletic
Livingston v Hamilton Accies
Raith Rovers v Cowdenbeath
