Saturday 4th August, 2012 at 8:46pm
After having opened the season with a 1-0 win over Clyde in the Ramsdens Cup, we’re away from home against lower division opposition once more tomorrow. This time Second Division Forfar Athletic provide the opposition in the opening round of this season’s Scottish Communities League Cup. It is expected that Dick Campbell’s side will provide Thistle with an altogether stiffer test than Clyde managed last weekend.
While we were defeating Clyde, Forfar were recording a notable victory in eliminating Dunfermline Athletic, in the SPL last season, out of the Ramsdens Cup. All three of the Forfar goals in their 3-2 victory being scored by players that Campbell added to his squad since the end of last season, the most notable of which is probably Gavin Swankie.
www.ptfc.co.uk caught up with Thistle manager Jackie McNamara yesterday evening just before the Thistle under 19s played a bounce game against a Glasgow University side and the Thistle boss is certainly anticipating a difficult fixture tomorrow.
“Forfar will be coming into the game with a bit of confidence and they will be hoping to follow up their win over Dunfermline by beating us as well. They have a real physical threat with the likes of Templeman in their side and on a tight pitch they will be dangerous at set pieces and throw ins. It’s going to be very important that we match them physically, are switched on at all times and make sure that we win the second balls.”
And for the second week in a row we find ourselves playing on a synthetic pitch although one, as Jackie points out, that has just been freshly installed.
“We are hoping that because the pitch is new that it will play a bit quicker than the pitch at Alloa did last weekend. The pitch at Alloa is a bit dated and was a bit dry last Saturday. When you play on astroturf you hope that the ball flows and doesn’t get caught up under players’ feet. The reports that we got back from Forfar’s game last week against Dunfermline suggest that the ball did move a bit quicker across the pitch although the players struggled to keep their feet a bit.”
It looks as if Thistle will be going into tomorrow’s fixture with a very similar squad to last week’s, although there are a couple of players missing through suspension.
“David Rowson is still struggling with his back injury and we’re not sure how long he is going to be out for to be honest. Christie Elliott wasn’t in training today and is suffering from tonsillitis. He saw the doctor today and is on a course of antibiotics. We’ll need to see how he is before we decide whether he will be fit enough to take up a place on the bench on Saturday.”
“Both Conrad Balatoni and Paul Paton are suspended for this game otherwise we are going into the game with a squad very similar to that that we had for the Clyde game last weekend. Ryan Scully, who has been troubled with an injury, trained today and he should be fit to take up a place on the bench.”
Finally, with Shaun Fraser and Johnny Lindsay having left the Club this week we wondered if that freed up space for a further addition to the squad.
“It doesn’t change things at the moment but that could change if we were to have a good run in the cup.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Season 2012-2013 So Far
W D L F A
1 0 0 1 0
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Kris Doolan 1
Last Game
Ramsdens Cup First Round
Saturday July 28th 2012
Clyde 0, Partick Thistle 1
Forfar Athletic Stats
Season 2012-2013 So Far
W D L F A
1 0 0 3 2
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Danny Denholm 1
Omar Kader 1
Gavin Swankie 1
Last Game
Ramsdens Cup First Round
Saturday July 28th 2012
Forfar Athletic 3, Dunfermline Athletic 2
Last Meeting
Challenge Cup Second Round
Tuesday August 18th 2009
Forfar Athletic 1, Partick Thistle 6
Teams
Forfar: Brown, Mowat (Smith), I Campbell, Brady, Tod, Tulloch (Malcolm),M Fotheringham (Gordon), R Campbell, Templeman, K Fotheringham, Deasley.
Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Boyle, Hodge, Robertson, Archibald, Cairney, Rowson (Kinniburgh), Doolan, Hamilton (Donnelly), Corcoran (Erskine).
Scorers
Forfar: Templeman (58)
Thistle: Doolan (8), Hamilton (51, 52), Rowson (60), Donnelly (75), Cairney (85)
Crowd: 532
Match Highlights
Match Details
Scottish Communities League Cup First Round
Saturday August 4th 2012
Forfar Athletic v Partick Thistle
Kick-off: 3:00pm
(extra-time and penalties if required)
Please note that there will be no Live Text Updates service from Station Park.
Prices
Stand
Adults £13
Concessions £7
Terracing
Adults £12
Concessions £6
No segregation
Travel
By Supporters Bus
By Car
There are car parking facilities in adjacent streets to the ground and also in the Market Muir car park.
By Bus
There is a regular service of buses departing from Dundee City Centre into Forfar. The bus station in the town is about half a mile from the ground. There is also a local service.
By Train
The nearest railway station is Dundee (14 miles away) and fans who travel to here should then board a bus for Forfar from the city centre. Arbroath station is also about 14 miles away.
Match Officials
Referee: Mat Northcroft
Assistant Referees: Raymond Whyte and Stephen Allan
Other Fixtures
Scottish Communities League Cup First Round
Queen of the South v Alloa Athletic
Stranraer v Livingston
Berwick Rangers v Raith Rovers
Stenhousemuir v Brechin City
Montrose v Cowdenbeath
Ayr United v Clyde
Dumbarton v Albion Rovers
Falkirk v Elgin City
Hamilton Accies v Annan Athletic
Arbroath v Stirling Albion
Queen’s Park v Airdrie United
