As far as cup draws go, we couldn’t have asked for much better. A lower division team and, more importantly, at home. We’ve also had a full week to rest and prepare rather than the chaos of last season which pretty much involved picking whoever was left standing towards the end of the season.
Partick Thistle will bring a mixture of experience and youthful endeavour, however, one player they won’t have is loan Ranger Cole McKinnon who eagle eyed observers will have noticed was training with his parent club this week – they obviously didn’t trust him not to leak Ian McCall’s game plan.
Michael Beale has hinted at a few changes but I’d expect us to go with a pretty consistent line-up and something that looks like this:
Nicolas Raskin needs to get up to speed and Todd Cantwell also needs more minutes in his legs and there is no better chance to give them time than a home game that we will dominate, the pair’s inclusion in the starting XI makes what could be a routine afternoon into something a little more exciting.
The same can be said for Antonio Colak starting, he’s never really been fit since Beale took over so it will be good to see the Croatia international with improved creativity behind him.
The defence, almost, picks itself. Normally, I would have expected Adam Devine to come in but James Tavernier is getting plenty of rest between games, start strong and then take him off if the game state allows.
We’ve shown flashes of what we are capable of in recent weeks but not taking our chances has let our opponents in, hopefully, this afternoon is a lot more comfortable.