St Johnstone host Partick Thistle in a 6-pointer at the top of the Championship.
The last meeting between these sides finished 2-1 to Partick Thistle. O’Reilly and Watt scored first half goals for The Jags. Into the second period, McPake scored a consolation goal for The Saints. In the previous meeting between these sides at McDiarmid Park, St Johnstone won 5-1. Reading opened the scoring for Partick Thistle, but goals from Gullan, a hat trick from McPake and a late Strike from Mallan saw the Saints pick up an emphatic home win.
In their last outing, St Johnstone lost 1-0 at home to Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline. The defeat saw their unbeaten home record in the league come to an end after 11 games.
In their last outing, Partick Thistle beat Scott Brown’s Ayr United at Firhill. Mark Wilson’s men raced into a 2-goal lead with 2 quickfire goals from Chalmers and Samuel, to put themselves in a commanding position after 15 minutes. Main scored on the hour mark, but it only turned out to be a consolation for The Honest Men. As a result, Partick Thistle now sit only 2 points off the top, setting up a mouthwatering clash at McDiarmid Park on Friday night. The Glasgow outfit have been poor on their travels, only picking up 13 points from a possible 33 on the road, in the league. Compared to their home record, where they have picked up 30 points, winning 9 and drawing 3.
These 2 sides are the highest scoring sides in the division. The Saints have scored 43 in 22 matches, while The Jags have found the net on 35 occasions, 6 above Dunfermline Athletic who sit 3rd in the goal scoring charts. St Johnstone duo McPake and Gullan lead the combined goals and assists tally in the Championship, with 15 and 14 separately. Partick Thistle forward Chalmers sits in 3rd with 12 combined goals and assists.
Simo Valakari ahead of St Johnstone’s huge clash against Partick Thistle:
“Another big one, another big one, and of course, again, a big big challenge for us and a game we want to play, because, if you want to call it, they are our ‘direct opponent’, they are right behind us, they are chasing us”, The Saints manager stated.
“We saw it last week, how tight these games are when you play against the top teams and we know tomorrow night we need to be close to our best to get something out of the game, but it’s the same for them”.
Luke McBeth ahead of Partick Thistle’s clash against St Johnstone:
“Really looking forward to it, obviously a massive game, so everyone’s up for it and just excited to get going”, he stated.
On what aspects in the last couple of games they are looking to carry going into Friday night’s clash:
“I think just being solid, trying not to concede. Obviously, they’ve got a lot of threats, but so do we, so think just playing our own, kind of knowing what they’re good at, but also getting up after the ball when we’ve got it.”
