Adam Barton reckons attack can be the best form of defence as Partick Thistle continue to seek a first league victory since the opening day of the season.

The Jags looked on course to end their winless stretch against Ross County at Firhill on Saturday having forged a lead through Sean Welsh’s first half penalty as they dictated large swathes of the game.

But Chris Burke popped up in injury time to smash home a leveller and pinch a point for the Highlanders.

Thistle, who sit second bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership, travel to Dens Park on Wednesday for a crucial contest with basement boys Dundee who are just a point behind.

Having conceded late goals to Hamilton and Hearts recently, it was more of the same at the weekend as Thistle saw a much-needed three points slip from their clutches.

The barren run continues to prey on the mind and Barton wants his Thistle team-mates to shrug of the psychological burden that is building and go on the offensive.

Barton, the former Preston, Coventry and Portsmouth defender, said: “It is beginning to be a psychological thing. We are going into games thinking we have to keep cleans sheets and sometimes that’s not good because you are worrying too much about defending.

“I think we have to work on our attacking play. The lads are getting in great positions but we are just not testing their keeper as much as we’d like too. That comes down to working on forward play. There’s only so much defensive play you can work on. We need to get over this thought of defend, defend, defend. It’s hard. If we got the win we’d be a lot more relaxed for Wednesday. Now we’ll just be feeling the same pressure as we did today.”

Barton was part of a new, three-man formation at the back which was working well until Liam Lindsay was stretchered off with a nasty injury.

The defender was left prostrate with what appeared to be a head knock after being involved in an aerial challenge with Staggies defender Andrew Davies and his own keeper Ryan Scully.

After a lengthy spell of treatment, the Jags defender was carried off the pitch on a stretcher to be replaced by Ziggy Gordon.

As Thistle were forced into a hasty re-organisation, County eventually took advantage when Burke was afforded time and space to get a shot away and level things up in the 95th minute. Ryan Dow then had a great close range chance to plunder all three points for the visitors but Scully pulled off a fine save.

Barton added: “I suppose we were quite lucky to get the point. We can’t put our finger on why the pressure keeps coming. It’s the last 10 minutes of each game. Teams pile pressure on and we need to find a way to calm that down, whether it’s getting the ball down and keeping possession or hitting the channels for someone to run on to and hold the ball up. If we had won we wouldn’t be having this conversation and we’d just move on. It feels like a defeat and when that happens you just start nit-picking and sometimes that not the best thing to do.

“You always want to do better in everything. You look at other teams and say we should do this better or that better. But little things like closing the ball down on the edge of the box, that’s basic. We shouldn’t be thinking ‘we should have closed that down’. We know our jobs. If someone is going to take three of us on and score a goal then you put your hands up and say ‘fair enough’. The goal we conceded shouldn’t have happened. He (Burke) had time on the ball to dribble and shoot. We can’t blame it on Liam’s departure. We are conceding late on and we’re not sure why that is."