Partick Thistle reserves or Manchester United?

I had the chance of a ticket for the Manchester United v Rangers game, so let's just say that I wasn't overly excited to be told I was heading for Maryhill and a reserve game against Partick Thistle on Tuesday night.

It was a horrible night and I'll not pretend it was the best ground I've ever played at but it was actually a decent game and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It has been about six weeks since I last started a match for Annan and during that time I've only managed one substitute appearance so I'll pretty much take anything I can get right now.

I've certainly missed not playing and although I've been on the bench I've started feeling less and less a part of things again. The old feelings have started coming back from the season before last when I was out the team for the majority of the season.

That's why it was good to get the reserve game in last night. It's so important for the guys that aren't involved in the starting 11 to get some game time and the ones that were involved against Thistle did themselves no harm.

I was happy to get a full 90 minutes in and happy enough with the way I played in the 2-2 draw, so hopefully I've put myself in the manager's thoughts ahead of Saturday's visit to Clyde.

Aaron Muirhead is likely to pay more attention to Harry Cairney's training ground talks in future. Photo:SNS

Changes are to the forefront of Harry's mind for the game this weekend after what was a very poor performance in the defeat to Elgin on Saturday.

Unfortunately I was able to watch the whole match from the sidelines and it was as lacklustre as I can remember for a long time. We got what we deserved from the game, which was nothing, and it wasn't until Elgin were reduced to ten men that we had any pressure.

They were fairly comfortable throughout and even when we did press them late in the second half it was more with hopeful long balls than with creativity.

This is something we will have to improve on immensely if we're to take anything from our trip to Broadwood this weekend. Although Clyde haven't made the start I'm sure they would have liked, this will be a very difficult game and they will be difficult to break down.

We'll have to show a lot more in an attacking sense to come away with a positive result and I can see one or two changes being made to try and ensure that happens.

Our trip on Saturday will bring back some good memories of our first ever match as a senior club. It doesn't seem over two years ago that we headed up the road to play that first match as a Third Division club only a few weeks after beginning our preparations for another season in the East of Scotland Premier Division.

Instead of facing Easthouses Lily we were to be pitting our wits against a First Division side.

I remember Harry telling me on the Thursday night before that he wanted me to captain the side again. A few months earlier I'd been given two red cards in a cup game and Harry had decided to transfer-list me.

I didn't think I'd ever play for the club again, let alone get the armband back and lead the side out in the SFL.

The two matches that followed against Clyde and the first league game at home to Stenhousemuir were up there with my proudest and most memorable moments as a footballer.

I'll finish off with another wee funny story from training last Thursday night. We had done our usual forfeits, which continue to get better, by the way, when Harry told us that we had missed a test the previous week that measures our power.

I think all the boys knew this was a wee joke but Aaron Muirhead was talking while Harry got all the boys together so he had him up first.

So, there is a massive elasticised rope fixed to the metal fence that surrounds the training pitch with a belt attached that Harry wraps around Aero to get him ready to go.

The point of the exercise is to see how far Aero can run before the rope slowly pulls him back and the distance is measured. Now, remembering that Aero isn't exactly lacking in confidence he hares across the pitch after Harry tells him that David Cox can make it over to the other side.

He gets to about 20 metres away from the fence and then, bang, the rope splits and whacks him right across the back. I kid you not, he was in absolute agony, jumping all over the place asking if it was done deliberately.

I saw him last night and he still has bruising on his back and backside.

The boys are now calling him whiplash!

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