GEORGE MONCUR admits victory over champions-elect Celtic would be the ideal way to bury the memories of Partick Thistle's Highland defeat.

The midfielder made his Jags debut in the 1-0 loss to Inverness Caley Thistle as Alan Archibald's side saw their impressive recent run suffer a setback.

On an afternoon where all three of their relegation rivals failed to pick up points, Thistle missed the chance to move up the Premiership standings as Billy McKay netted the only goal of the game.

Next up for Thistle is the visit of Celtic to Firhill on Wednesday and West Ham loan star Moncur is eager to be involved after getting a long-awaited bow following his January switch north of the border.

He said: "It was great to make my first appearance for Thistle. I've been up here for a couple of months now and I've just been working hard to try and get my chance in the first team.

"I've played in quite a few under-20s games since I arrived in January and I'm just keen to get as much game time as possible during my time up here.

"It was disappointing not to be able to head back down the road with three points but it was brilliant to finally get a run out in front of the famous Jags fans, they were great for the full 90 minutes on Saturday.

"I've obviously impressed enough to get a chance and I'm just going to get my head down, work hard and try to build from there. I think I did okay and I'll hopefully get another opportunity soon.

"These sorts of games are what every player looks forward to and I just hope to be involved at some point.

"There's an excitement around the place and, even though we lost, the whole squad will be back and training hard today.

"A result against the best team in the league would definitely put memories of Saturday out of people's minds."

Thistle made the trip up the A9 on Saturday aiming to continue their fine form in the Highlands and record their second win of the campaign at the Caledonian Stadium.

It was to prove a frustrating afternoon, however, with McKay's second-half strike enough to hand John Hughes his first home triumph since replacing Terry Butcher in the dugout.

AND boss Archibald was disappointed to see his side fail to build on an encouraging showing before the break as they slipped to defeat.

"I thought we caused them a lot of problems, particularly in the first half but for some reason in the second half we stopped doing what we had been doing to hurt them," he told ptfc.co.uk

"They upped their game in the second half and we expected that because you know what you're going to get with John.

"It was a strange second half to be honest and it was very disappointing not to have capitalised on the chances we had in the first.

"We knew Inverness would be a bit tentative considering they had gone so long without a home win, we certainly know that feeling.

"We were delighted with the way we started and definitely felt we could get something, but you can't play that well in the first half then not keep it going in the second and hope to come out on top."

Meanwhile, Inverness No.2 Russell Latapy put aside any talk of a push for European football after their victory left them nine points behind both Aberdeen and Motherwell, who are in second and third respectively, while they trail Dundee United by two points.

Latapy said: "Europe will take care of itself. We go into every game looking to try and win every single match so we'll go to Dundee United on Wednesday looking to win."