Saturday 20th July, 2013 at 1:56pm
A little time has passed since Thistle and Arbroath last crossed swords. Indeed you need to go back over 11 years, to March 2002, for the last meeting between the two teams when Thistle, on route to winning the First Division title, came from 2-0 down at Firhill to draw 2-2.
There’s no league points at stake tomorrow but the game is still an important one as we continue our preparation for the start of the 2013-2014 season which, as if you needed any reminding, is just a fortnight away.
For Arbroath, whose squad for the season ahead includes former jags Ricky Little and Johnny Lindsay, the start of the competitive action comes even sooner. They start their season with a Ramsdens Cup date with Stenhousemuir a week on Saturday. Tomorrow’s game, therefore, promises to be a stern test although the weather forecast at least suggests that the temperature in Arbroath tomorrow will be a little cooler than what we are currently experiencing in Glasgow.
Tomorrow should give any of Thistle fans heading to Arbroath a glimpse of our new loan signing Henoc Mukendi, who arrived in Glasgow yesterday, and the manager was able to provide us with a little more information about him.
“He’s a young lad in his final year of his contract at Liverpool. We got the chance to take him on loan and it was a bit of a no brainer for us. The strikers that we’ve got are a bit smaller and Henoc, who can play anywhere across the front, has a bit of presence about him and offers us something a bit different. It’s important to stress though that he isn’t a target man. He’s technically a good player and I think he was keen to come here because of the type of football that we play. He went out on loan to Northampton last season and I think that they tended just to knock the ball back to front to him and that really isn’t his style at all.”
There will be another unfamiliar face in the Thistle side tomorrow as Alan explained;
“We’ve another trialist coming in; someone who we haven’t seen before, for us to have a look at.”
As for the rest of the team news;
“Stuart Bannigan is coming along well. He’ll not be involved tomorrow but we hope that he’ll be involved in training from the start of next week. Sean Welsh is obviously out for a few weeks and Mark Kerr has picked up an infection on his toe and he might be a doubt for tomorrow. Otherwise I think everyone else is fit and available.”
Match Details
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday July 20th 2013
Arbroath v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults £8
Concessions £4
Adult and Child £10
Match Officials
Referee: Andrew Dallas
Assistant Referees: Willie Ferguson and Steven Traynor
