Partick will have a point to prove says McCracken

The Jags, much like Falkirk, were one of the teams who were far from happy with the decision to promote and relegate teams at the end of 2019/20 campaign despite the full season not having been played.

Now, as League 1's two full time clubs go head to head, McCracken reckons Partick will be looking to show they are a side who still deserve to be playing in the Championship.

He said: “A lot of the talk early on was about Partick coming down and us not going up.

"They will be wanting to put that right and prove they should still be in the Championship - the way things went with Covid wasn't the best way to go down.

"We’re focusing on ourselves though and we had a good result and decent performance last week and now we're looking at this Saturday’s game and working on that.

“We've had them watched a few times and will prepare in training to deal with their strengths and weaknesses.

"They got beat last week but they will want to put that right as well.”

The two teams started out the season a first and second favourites to win League 1 with the bookies but it is dark horses Cove Rangers who currently sit top with three wins from three including a 1-0 victory over Partick last weekend courtesy of a Rory McAllister injury time goal.

It was a second defeat of the season for Ian McCall’s side and a win at Firhill this weekend would see the Bairns open up a seven point gap over them – a serious advantage even this early in to the campaign with the season being shorter by nine games than usual.

"We say every week we take one game at a time,” said McCracken

"There's no point looking too far forward.

"You want to look at it in that sense [opening up a gap] but there's still a lot of points to be won and lost, our aim is to get as many points on the board as possible.

“We're not really interested in what other teams are up to, they'll be focusing on their own game and we will focus on ours.”

McCracken also provided an update on fellow co-manager Lee Miller who remains in isolation following a positive Covid-19 test in his family.

"Lee is constantly on the phone speaking about how training has gone.

"It's very much the same although it's different and just because he's not here doesn't mean he's not working and once he's back that will hopefully help lift the boys.

"Our understanding is that the Dumbarton game on Tuesday will still be too early for him to return but we're keeping tabs on that.”