Ross County may have broken into the top-half of the Premiership, but defender Jay McEveley will not be content until the Staggies make up further ground on fifth-placed St Johnstone.
County moved into the top half of the Premiership by beating Aberdeen 2-1 on Saturday and can consolidate with another victory against Partick Thistle at Victoria Park tomorrow.
Despite being bottom of the table, the Jags are one of a number of teams in pursuit of County and victory in Dingwall would move Alan Archibald’s men to within two points of the Highlanders.
Former Scotland international McEveley is intent on steering away from the cluster of sides in the bottom half by closing in on Saints, who are four points clear of his club, and he said: “The league is very tight and one win takes us up there, one loss takes us down. To put a consistent run of performances and points together is really going to draw us away from the pack.
“We really don’t want to be getting involved in it. We’re looking upwards at St Johnstone and fifth position to see how close we can get to that.
“If we could do it before Christmas, it would give us a good platform to go into the Celtic game and then Inverness at home where we can try to really leave our mark on 2016 and finish the year in a good position.”
County’s win against the Dons extends their unbeaten run to six matches, although it was just their second victory during the sequence, and McEveley is determined to help his side make it back-to-back wins for the first time since August. He added: “The win has been coming for a while. We have been on a great unbeaten run but just not putting away the chances we were creating.
“Against Aberdeen on Saturday we got the result we needed. The performances have merited a result like that and to back it up was good. We want that on Friday and get a positive result which would cement our place in the top six.”
McEveley missed Saturday’s game through suspension due to an accumulation of bookings, but could return at left back in place of Kenny van der Weg, who will miss out following his red card against the Pittodrie side.
