Well duo in fitness fight for Euro clash
Motherwell boss Graham Alexander is facing a fitness sweat over key stars Kevin van Veen and Paul McGinn for their Conference League clash against Sligo.
Dutch striker van Veen and experienced defender McGinn both missed out on the bounce game win at Firhill – and Juhani Ojala was also absent.
Now Alexander is hoping Well’s medical team can get them ready for Thursday’s first leg at Fir Park against the Irish side.
He said: “They’ve picked up knocks and weren’t fit to be involved. We’ll assess them on Monday to see if they can train.
“I’m always optimistic but I’m not an expert in injuries and I’ll leave it to the information from the medical people who know.
“Kev was a big player for us last season and we brought Paul in to play.
“We want everybody fit, we haven’t got a massive squad that will cover four or five injuries.”
Alexander will have Sligo watched against UCD today. He said: “We’ve seen a few of their games already and we’ll have someone at their game.
“We’ll do our analysis but the biggest thing is us getting our game going.
“We know Sl igo are ahead of us in games but we want to compete and be adaptable.”
The only goal at Firhill came when Joe Efford ran on to Blair Spittal’s pass in 59 minutes and slotted a cool finish past sub keeper David Mitchell.
Alexander also gave a run-out to keeper Alston Oxborough as No.2 Scott Fox has an injury and he needs cover.
Thistle suffered a blow with Stuart Bannigan lasting 29 minutes before picking up an injury but assistant Alan Archibald insisted it was a useful game. He said: “It enabled us to get 90 minutes for a few players who needed it, like Darren Brownlie and the two Rangers lads. Tony Weston came on Monday and then Cole MacKinnon was Tuesday and hadn’t even met the players. So that was a big benefit.”
PARTICK THISTLE: Sneddon (Mitchell 45); McMillan (MacKenzie 61), Akinola, Brownl ie, Mi lne (Docherty 61); McKinnon, Bannigan ( Lyon 29), Stanway (Graham 75), Fitzpatrick (Stevenson 83); Lawless (Smith 45), Weston.
MOTHERWELL: Kelly (Oxborough 56); Johnston (Cornelius 76), Mugabi, Lamie, Carroll, Slattery, Maguire ( Johansen 70), Spittal; Shields, Efford (Goss 63), Morris (Tierney 45).