AGAINST all odds, Partick Thistle’s bleak midwinter could yet be transformed into the season to be jolly as the turn of the year approaches.

Things were starting to look desperate for the Jags when a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Kilmarnock a week ago kept them rooted to the bottom of the table, but a nerve-shredding midweek win over Motherwell has revived spirits in the camp ahead of today’s bottom-two tussle with Dundee.

Thistle manager Alan Archibald looked on in disbelief as his side threatened to throw away a 3-0 half time lead against the Steelmen on Wednesday, conceding twice before ultimately holding on to a precious three points that took them from the brink of despair to within three points of ninth-placed Hamilton Accies.

Loading article content

“That’s the beauty of this league, if you win a game it can change everything so quickly,” he said.

“We spoke about that all the time, we didn’t want to be cut adrift when we were on that bad run and it’s given us a chance to go above Dundee this weekend.

“It’ll be a tough task, I think if anyone was at the game previously against Dundee we got out of jail by taking the three points. Dundee were excellent on the day and we were really poor, but we actually won the game, so it’ll be a tough test for us.”

A win would see the Jags leapfrog Dundee in the standings and potentially Ross County too if the Staggies are defeated in Hamilton.

As it stands, the gap between rock bottom and Motherwell in sixth is just nine points and although Archibald doesn’t foresee a seven-team relegation battle, he is keen to emphasise that the best way for his team to avoid a tense end to the campaign is by repeating last season’s heroics and securing a top six finish.

“I think it’s just the ones that are down there, the four or five maybe at the moment,” he said.

“But it can all change with so many games, we know how quickly it changes and I think we’ve seen in the last couple of years that the only way you can really stay out of it is to be in that top six – we found that last year and that was why we celebrated getting into the top six, it means you can enjoy the last few weeks of the season rather than look over your shoulder.”

Dundee midfielder Paul McGowan has insisted he’s relishing seeing how his side bounce back from their Tynecastle horror show.

The Dark Blues are still smarting from Tuesday’s 2-0 away defeat to Hearts which manager Neil McCann labelled a “joke” and left them sitting just one point off the foot of the table.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we react,” he said. “I feel we owe ourselves one more than anything. We let ourselves down badly.

“We obviously let the coaching staff and the fans down too. Did we get a bit complacent? Did we roll up at Tynecastle just thinking we’d get a result? I don’t know.

“We need to now stand up and be counted because Partick don’t deserve to be down where they are in the league table.

“They’ve got players who can hurt you which we must be wary of and have been consistently good over the past few seasons.

“We can’t expect just to turn up and roll over Partick. It doesn’t work like that in this league. We’ve got to outplay them and out-run them to get the result.”

McGowan admits McCann was entitled to savage them publicly and believes his comments have raised the stakes going into this afternoon’s basement battle.

He added: “I think the manager was more hurt than angry.He had every right to be upset and said his piece to us.

“After the game, you try and analyse but quite simply we were off the pace and the only person to get pass marks was Elliot Parish, our keeper.

“We have to get everybody right at it on the park.”