2.30pm

Today's local press reports that three key players will be missing for the crucial game against Dundee Utd on Saturday.  Scott Leitch will serve the second of his three-match suspension, Keith Lasley will be out until the start of next month at least with knee medial ligament damage suffered against Aberdeen, and James McFadden is still suffering from the thigh injury he picked up at Firhill.  Terry Butcher said:
"It’s a blow that James is going to miss out, but we do have one or two options who can come in.  Obviously, James has been a regular for us this season and he’s a very good player, so we’re going to miss him.  Over recent games we been hit with a number of injuries and suspensions to key players and that probably hasn’t helped us during this difficult period.  However, there’s no point in moaning about it. The simple fact is we need to start winning games.  Also, we need to start getting that little bit of luck as we can’t seem to buy a goal at the moment, although when we do score they seem to be spectacular.  It’s important that everyone sticks together and I’m confident if we can do that, then we’ll start to climb up the table sooner rather than later."

Looking back to the defeat against Kilmarnock, Butcher added:
"Losing the goal against Kilmarnock so late on was very disappointing, especially after we had put so much in.  We were heading for our second clean sheet of the season and the point would have been enough to take us off the bottom of the table.  But they scored with just a minute of injury-time remaining which never really gave us any time to recover.  To be honest, I was surprised the players managed to keep going as well as they did for the full ninety minutes given their efforts against Aberdeen in the League Cup.  However, we didn’t deserve to lose as both teams probably had about the same amount of opportunities and a draw would have been a fair result."

"Kilmarnock’s late winner was really hard to take and all the players were absolutely gutted when they got back into the dressing room.  They’ve had that feeling now for the last eight games and they are all working hard to try and change things round.  Although they were disappointed with the result, all the players appreciated the supporters staying right till the end an applauding them off the park.  When the ball got anywhere near the Kilmarnock goal they were willing it to go in, but we just couldn’t take one of our chances."

"The players are disappointed and angry after reading some of the reports of our recent matches in the papers because, if you believed them, then we were absolute rubbish!  However, we know what we have to do and the mood in the camp is still good, although it would be better if we could get a win.  Out of the next six games, four are away from home, so this is a difficult part of the season coming up for us and that’s why the Dundee Utd game is a big one for us.  The good thing is the Aberdeen game is now out of the way and that will give us the chance to fully focus on what we’re going to do against Utd.  They’ll be a hard team to beat, especially with the new manager just taking over, but if we can just get that little bit of belief back that we had earlier in the season then we’re in with a chance."

10.10am

A rather worrying report in today's Sun claims that Dirk Lehmann will sign for relegation rivals Partick Thistle when the transfer window re-opens in January.  Apparently John Lambie has been told that the German striker is available on a free transfer following a contract row with administrator Bryan Jackson.  Lehmann was supposedly promised a string of concessions in return for taking a considerable wage cut when the club went into administration, but the Sun claims these have not been forthcoming and he is set to walk away in January.  A "Fir Park insider" is quoted as saying:
"Dirk is not happy about many things regarding his contract.  He took a wage cut in good faith, expecting to be sorted out when things smoothed over.  They haven't and he feels he has no option but to leave the club.  John Lambie is well aware of what's happening and let's just say he's keeping a very close eye on the situation.  Dirk isn't likely to be the only one leaving in January but I don't see the fans being too amused with him going to Thistle."

The Under-21s lost 3-1 to Partick Thistle at Fir Park on Monday night.

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