Partick Thistle’s inability to see out their last two matches has left the race for a top-six place open and Ross County manager Jim McIntyre wants to take full advantage with a victory at Firhill today.
Thistle have lost late goals to draw 1-1 in recent games against Caley Thistle and Kilmarnock and, although they remain sixth in the table, they are only two points ahead of seventh-placed Killie.
The Staggies are six points off the pace and McIntyre knows his players must record a victory against Alan Archibald’s men to keep themselves in the hunt for a second successive top-half finish.
McIntyre said: “Alan will be disappointed they’ve conceded two late goals when he probably feels he could have had the top-six spot nailed.
“We’ve seen it ourselves when we lost three late goals in consecutive weeks. It’s a sore one to take. I know how Alan would have been feeling but that’s this level, you make mistakes and you get punished.
“We know we’re going to be facing a team that’s really determined, on their home patch. I think we have just got to concentrate on ourselves.
“We’ve got to make sure we can be as good as we can be. We know if we bring a high level of performance to the game we are capable of beating any team. It’s clear what we need to do – we need to win the game.
“But our away record is good and we’ve done a lot of good work away from home. If we can replicate that type of performance we’ve had away from home then we’ve got a good chance.”
McIntyre admires the consistency Thistle have shown this season and the Staggies manager, who could have Scott Fox, Jay McEveley, Paul Quinn and Martin Woods back in contention, added: “The games between Thistle and ourselves are generally decided by a goal, apart from the last one here when they beat us 3-1. The head-to-heads have been very tight.
“I don’t expect any different. Alan has done a great job there. We know how tough a fixture it’s going to be, Thistle have been very good as of late. They’ve only lost two games in the last 11 so they’ve been on real consistent form.”
