Thursday 25th November, 2021 at 5:03pm
Partick Thistle made it six clean sheets in a row with a 1-0 win over Hamilton Accies at Firhill on Saturday; a result which broke the club record for consecutive league shutouts and saw Thistle move to within two points of the cinch Championship summit.
Ian McCall’s side are currently eight unbeaten in the league, however, it’s now time for some Scottish Cup football as Dunfermline Athletic visit Firhill and Ciaran McKenna spoke to ptfc.co.uk to preview the team’s fourth clash with the Pars already this season:
“The cup is something that we want to do well in this season. We’ve got a good home tie, but it’ll be a tough game especially since they’ve brought a new manager in that’s clearly given them a bit of confidence and they’ve had a couple of good results as well. We’re looking forward to the game and every club loves a good cup run so we want to carry our league form into the cup.”
Dunfermline were last at Firhill in October when the sides battled to a stalemate. That game was also the start of Thistle’s record-breaking clean sheet streak but with the arrival of John Hughes at East End Park, Ciaran is expecting a different side this time around.
“I think a lot of their players will have a point to prove with the new manager and they’ll be hungry to impress and earn a place in the team, so I think we’ll be up against a side that are committed and have a renewed sense of energy about them like you get with most teams that bring in a new manager. We know it’ll be a tough game but it’s at home for us and we’re on a good run of form so we can go into the game confident in ourselves.”
Thistle have every right to be confident at the moment having won their last three games without conceding a goal and Ciaran reckons the most recent of those victories could be the most important.
“I think the Accies win is massive. The game was tight and there wasn’t much good football on display by either side, but we kept a clean sheet and that gives us the best chance to sneak a goal and win the game in the second half which we were able to do.
“We knew going into the game that if we kept another clean sheet then that would be the club record outright. To play a small part in breaking the record is brilliant, but credit has to go the full squad as well because it’s a team effort.
“Coming into the backline in the middle of a run when they’re doing so well puts a bit of pressure on whoever comes in and you don’t want to let the manager or the boys down, but the whole team has been playing with a lot of composure and organisation so that makes it easier to slot in.”
Exclusive video interviews with Thistle assistant manager Alan Archibald and Kyle Turner will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.
JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Dunfermline, starting at 7:15pm – click here to tune in.
We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.
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