Kris Doolan hopes he has done enough to retain his starting slot for Partick Thistle after regaining his place in attack against Dundee.

Doolan, the club’s top scorer for the past two seasons, had found himself on the bench in recent weeks as Mathias Pogba led the line.

After a fine performance in helping his side to a point at Dens Park though, Doolan is looking to maintain his status as the Jags main man up front.

“I was delighted to be back starting and that’s obviously what I want to be doing, I want to play all the time,” he said.

“You have to believe that your chance is going to come back around and you’ve got to be ready. “You’ve just got to keep your head down and work really hard day-in, day-out. Whenever you come off the bench you’ve got to prove that you should be playing and that’s what I was trying to do.

“It’s good to have competition and it’s the same for every position. Maybe other teams don’t chop and change as much, but you just need to get on with it and it’s good to have someone always clipping at your heels and trying to take your position because it keeps you sharp.

“I’m confident I can keep my place now. On Saturday we played well as a team, and I would hope to keep my place within that. All I can do is keep my head down, work hard and give 100% for the team.

“Mathias and I are two totally different players and are in total contrast to each other, so it’s good to have the option to change it if something’s not working in a game.

“Although we’re playing in the same system, it allows us to change our approach if we need to.”

Despite being pleased with his own and the team’s performance in the draw with Dundee, Doolan was disappointed that they hadn’t left Tayside with all three points.

“We came away with the feeling that it was two points dropped to be honest after leading all the way up until 5 minute to go, but it was a much better performance from us,” he said.

“In the first-half we were up and at them and we didn’t give them any space, all the momentum was with us.

“In the second-half we seemed to drop off them a wee bit and camped in a little, which let Dundee back into the game. We’ve got to learn that we can’t do that, we’ve got to keep the pressure on teams because inevitably they will get a goal if we don’t and that’s what happened.

“We were creating chances in the first-half and that didn’t really happen in the second-half. We were 1-0 up coming in at half-time, but we were disappointed not to be further ahead.”

After this week’s international break, the Jags have a chance to gain back some of the ground they have lost on the teams immediately above them as Inverness visit Maryhill.

“We’re back at Firhill and being the home team we’ve got to go and take the game to Inverness, which we definitely will,” said Doolan.

“We’ll have a right go at any team that comes to our place, and we’ve got to be looking to pick up points from teams around about us and claw some points back.

“The performance against Hearts, especially in the second-half, wasn’t good enough and the players know that.

“We went to Dundee and we put in a much better performance, much more positive, and we’ll look to build on that at Firhill.

“We don’t want to become detached, we want to be in the mix. The onus is on us to go and win the games against the teams around about us because we need to claw those points back.”