Friday Footie Frills at Firhill

It's Friday Footie Frills at Firhill for a TV spectacular as we take on fellow contenders Partick Thistle in the Championship. This game can be seen on BBC Scotland, that's cooncil TV to you and me, or even better get yersel along to Firhill and cheer the lads on. It's a 7:45pm kick off as two of the fancied teams for a play-off place meet head on. We have history of course. We ended Partick's ambitions last season with home and away wins in the play-offs. Early doors yet, but both teams will be looking to keep pace with favourites Dundee at the top of the table.

MATCH/TICKET/SUPPORTERS BUS INFO

Home advantage looks to be the deciding factor in these fixtures. We did however get the better of Partick in last seasons play-off games, winning 2-1 at Firhill:-  Advantage Inverness: The first leg of the Premiership Play-Offs saw Inverness travel to Glasgow to take on the Maryhill Magyars as a place in the top division beckoned. Neither side were able to dominate on the Firhill tattie field and they went in goalless at the break although Logan Chalmers looked to be impeded as he tried to get a shot away. Crawford opened the scoring when he got onto a reverse ball from Graham to shoot high into the net from inside the box to put Partick in the driving seat. Inverness turned it round in the second half with goals from Shane Sutherland and Austin Samuels and it's back to the Highlands on Friday night to conclude this tie. And that turned out to be a 1-0 home win for the Caley Jags.

Here's the goals from that last game at Firhill

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (A)

3 - 3 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

1 - 3 (A)

1 - 3 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

Saturday fixtures

   Arbroath v Queen's Park

Cove v Ayr Utd

Accies v Rovers   

Morton v Dundee  

This Season

Partick Thistle started the season with a bang. A tremendous away win at Dens Park in a five goal thriller was followed up by a home draw against Hamilton Accies, Brian Graham salvaging a point with a late equaliser in a game that Partick always had the edge but had to battle to get their point. Last week the big Glasgow derby ended in defeat as newly promoted Queens Park stunned the visiting faithful with a 3-2 win. Makes Inverness' opening day draw with Queens feel like a point gained instead of a point lost. Our second game was a predictable no scoring draw at Arbroath and last Saturday brought our first win of the campaign by 4-1 over Cove Rangers. Austin Samuels the one responsible for most of that with a couple of goals along with Aaron Doran and Nathan Shaw who opened his account at the Caledonian Stadium.

Latest Team News

Alas, Sutherland and Walsh are out long term with Sean Welsh and Max Ram also in recovery mode. Wallace Duffy and David Carson missed out last week which left us a bit lop sided at the back. To compound that, left sided defender Lewis Nicolson has gone on loan to Elgin City until January. Austin Samuels' performance last week earned him a 'place' in the team of the week.

Eric's Partick probe

Exodus from Firhill: Mason McCready goalkeeper on loan to Dalbeattie Star. The following players had their loans terminated by parent club Rangers FC, Andy Firth goalkeeper, Lewis Mayo centre back and centre forward Juan Alegria. Loan player right winger Kyle McCallister back to St Mirren and forward Alex Jakubiak returned to Dundee FC. Three players have gone on free transfers to Queen of the South, backs Ciaran McKenna and Stephen Hendrie also right-winger Connor Murray Moving on from Firhill on free transfers are Steven Bell centre back to Kelty Hearts, Shea Gordon a midfield player now at Larne FC and forward Ross MacIver to Alloa. Zak Rudden confirmed signed for Dundee after being on loan there for the second half of last season.

Another couple of players have left, Ricky Foster is off to Detroit City and midfielder Robbie Crawford is going spare.

New faces at Firhill that have arrived on a free transfer basis.

David Mitchell goalkeeper from Hibernian: Harry Milne left back from Cove Rangers: Jack McMillan right back from Livingston FC

Another right back in Aaron Muirhead from Ayr United: Aiden Fitzpatrick from Queen of the South plays on the right of midfield.

Steven Lawless right winger previously at Dunfermline Athletic: A couple of centre forwards added to the squad are Danny Mullen from Dundee FC and Anton Dowds ex Falkirk.

Loan players in include Lee Hodson a right back from Kilmarnock, and no surprised to find a couple of Loan ins from Rangers FC in Cole McKinnon in midfield and forward player Tony Weston.

Thanks Eric, Partick Thistle keeping you on your toes I see