Saturday 17th October, 2015 at 2:12pm
Thistle return to league business after the international break and it’s been a happy camp around Firhill since victory two weeks ago.
“It was great to get the first victory. We need to build on it, but the game against St Johnstone will be extremely tough. They’ve won each of their last three games and will be a difficult test.
“The international break came at a good time for us as we have a couple of players who have been struggling with niggles. It’s also been a happy camp and everyone has that spring in their step again.”
Thistle went down to England last week and Alan expanded more on the trip.
“We went down to Newcastle for a couple of days last week and it was good for the squad to get away and enjoy themselves. We did a couple of light sessions and let the lads do a bit of team bonding to get the morale levels back up. It’s good to get the players away from the intense scrutiny and to have a couple of days where they can just get away from things.”
Thistle haven’t enjoyed a good record at McDiarmid Park but that is something that the gaffer knows won’t affect the players.
“The record won’t bother the players one bit, they did it when we faced Dundee United in February so they are more than capable of doing it again tomorrow.
“We beat St Johnstone in our last match and it will be those players we play tomorrow so our squad are well aware of their weaknesses, we’ll go in with a gameplan that we will look to implement to pick up all three points. It will be a very difficult match and we’ll have to fight hard for the right to claim all three points.”
Alan finished off by giving us the team news ahead of the game.
“Christie Elliott is still missing, but Gary Fraser came through an hour for the development squad unscathed which is encouraging. Freddie Frans is fit again and Robbie Muirhead is available for selection again having sat out the match against Dundee United through ineligibility.”
