McCann on Maryhill Match

"It should be a cracking game for the supporters and hopefully we will get the backing there.

Jackie McNamara shares a few words with kit man Mo Hutton

Neil McCann is good friends with the Partick Thistle manager Jackie McNamara so he is very aware that Jackie has been working on building a team to challenge for promotion to the SPL for the last eighteen months.

"He added quality in the summer and we knew that they would be strong. But every day you are looking at your own group and thinking - they are coming on and showing a bit of character, signs of strength and hunger as well as ability. They are scoring goals, defending properly and there seems to be a good all-round package there but it is a long season.

"We don't have a big squad but if you get to the business end and we are still there or thereabouts , that is when you will know what the team is made of. The signs are, even this early, that it is strong enough to mount a challenge it's being able to sustain it that will make us title contenders."

Neil McCann in the dug out when Partick were at East End Park in August

Partick and Morton are hot on the heels of Dunfermline at the top of the First Division and with so many local derbies for the Pars there is little time to allow the players to be off their guard. Neil commended Saturday's trip to Maryhill:-

"If you are not up for the big games, then you shouldn't be playing. It should be a cracking game for the supporters and hopefully we will get the backing there. Partick will have a right good crowd and it will be a match between two teams that are very attractive to watch. Anyone who has been a Dunfermline fan, from what I take from comments that I have heard or read, they are very pleased with the brand of football that's being played at the moment.

"The last couple of games have not been our best. We have missed Stephen Jordan which has forced us to change a few things a bit but the pleasing thing is that we continued that unbeaten run."

When the teams met for the first time this season Partick left East End Park having inflicted a 1-0 defeat on the Fifers but that served to mark the card of the Dunfermline team:-

"We said when we faced Partick the first time this season that it would be a benchmark because we felt they are favorites for the title. Although We lost that game I didn't think there was a lot in it, we just maybe got Partick too early. We did not have Callum Morris and we were still young in terms of the group coming together but this match will be a really good indication because I think Partick Thistle are now looking at us as real contenders as well."

The Thistle players will claim that Dunfermline are favourites because they have just come down from the SPL but Neil explains that these are games where the boys have to show what they are made of:-

"The boys need to stand up, prove how good they are and offer an indication of how good they maybe can be. It is a very competitive league because everyone wants to get to the top table and join the big boys in the SPL"