Saturday 20th October, 2012 at 9:04pm
After three successive away games, Thistle make a welcome return to Firhill tomorrow afternoon with the visit of Airdrie United.
Thistle manager Jackie McNamara was certainly looking forward to getting back to familiar surrounds when he spoke with ptfc.co.uk
“It will be nice to get back to Firhill tomorrow. It’s a game that we are naturally looking to win; we should be looking to win all our home games and turn Firhill into something of a fortress. So far this season that is something, with the help of the fans backing, that we have managed to do. Airdrie United will be looking to bounce back from a bad defeat against Hamilton in their last match and they will be tough opposition tomorrow. We are, however, after a series of away games on tight, narrow pitches; looking forward to get back playing at Firhill. Hopefully we can make good use of the extra space, express ourselves and create plenty of chances.”
We will go into tomorrow’s game fairly well placed in terms of player availability. We will, however, be without Hugh Murray who was sent off against Morton in our last league game. We will look as if we will be without Alan Archibald as well. At the time of writing he is struggling and he must be rated as a major doubt. He had an injection during the week and there is nothing sinister about his injury. If he doesn’t make it tomorrow we would expect him to be back in the next week or so.”
“We have a relatively strong squad at the moment and that has allowed us to let James Craigen head out on a month’s loan with Forfar Athletic. James has been unfortunate that the form of Steven Lawless and Chris Erskine has kept him out of the side and this loan move will allow him to play more competitive fixtures that he would do playing for the reserves here.”
“Mark McGuigan has benefited from his time on loan with Albion Rovers in the same division. Mark continues to train with us and it looks as if he has gained a great deal of confidence from his time with Albion Rovers. We’re hoping that James will benefit in a similar fashion from his time with Dick Campbell and Forfar.”
“Although both James and Mark are currently out on loan they remain part of my plans here. It’s a long, long season and we’re only in October just 8 league games into the season. Over the course of the season we are going to have utilise our whole squad as best as we can.”
“In addition to having sent out some players on loan we, of course, have a couple of loan players of our own. We’ve only just recently brought Paul Slane in on loan from Celtic and we also have Steven Craig, who of course scored our winner at Cowdenbeath last weekend. Steven is here until the end of December but we don’t know what will happen after that. He’s certainly a player that I would like to keep and we will do all that we can to do that.”
Partick Thistle Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
3 1 1 7 6
Scorers Season 2012-2013
Chris Erskine 6
Steven Lawless 6
Steven Craig 5
Kris Doolan 5
Stuart Bannigan 2
Christie Elliott 1
Aaron Muirhead 1
Aaron Sinclair 1
Sean Welsh 1
Own Goal 1
Last Game
Ramsdens Cup Semi-Final
Sunday October 14th 2012
Cowdenbeath 0, Partick Thistle 1
Airdrie United Stats
Current Form – Last Five Games
W D L F A
0 1 4 3 13
Scorers Season 2012-2013
John Boyle 7
Alan Cook 2
Jamie Bain 1
Nathan Blockley 1
Paul Di Giacomo 1
Willie McLaren 1
Last Game
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday October 6th 2012
Airdrie United 0, Hamilton Accies 4
Last Meeting
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday April 3rd 2010
Airdrie United 2, Partick Thistle 0
Teams
Airdrie United: Robertson, Storey, Lovering, Smyth, Donnelly, McLaughlin, Trouten (Baird), McCann, O’Carroll (Keegan), Gemmill (Watt), Waddell.
Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Boyle, McKeown, Robertson, Maxwell, Erskine (Grehan), Rowson, Buchanan (Burns), Donnelly (Cairney), Corcoran.
Scorers
Airdrie United: Lovering (71), McLaughlin (73)
Crowd: 1,142
Match Highlights
Match Details
Irn-Bru Scottish League First Division
Saturday October 20th 2012
Partick Thistle v Airdrie United
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Prices
Adults: £17
OAP (65+): £12
16-21: £12
Full Time Education: £12
Programme: £2.50
Match Officials
Referee: Euan Norris
Assistant Referees: Stuart Stevenson and Scott Lambie
Other First Division Fixtures
Cowdenbeath v Raith Rovers
Dumbarton v Falkirk
Dunfermline Athletic v Morton
Hamilton Accies v Livingston
