ALAN ARCHIBALD hopes Partick Thistle can add to the Firhill feel good factor ahead of a tricky run of Premiership fixtures.

It has been a frustrating few weeks for the Jags as they have seen a number of points slip through their grasps in the top flight.

But the mood in the camp was far happier on Wednesday night as goals from Ade Azeez and Kris Doolan clinched a 2-0 win over Dundee at Dens Park.

Thistle are now four points clear of the Dees ahead of their clash with third-placed St Johnstone in Perth this afternoon.

And boss Archibald admits it was a welcome relief to see smiles back on the faces of his players in the aftermath of a crucial Premiership win.

He said: “It is a totally different mood, it is a great mood. It has been a long time coming and we have had a few sore ones in the previous weeks.

“It is a much better feeling and you can sense the relief in the lads as well getting the monkey off our backs. It was dragging on and we are delighted to get it over and done with.

“I am not going to dress it up, it is hard after it on the Sunday and the Monday. It is difficult to take, especially if you have played well.

“The other side of that is you can take positives from it if you have played well. We thought on Saturday against County it was a positive performance and we got that on Wednesday night.

“The difference was that we got goals at the right time and we put them to bed with the second one.

“The games have been positive, we have been creating chances. We only had one really awful performance that we were disappointed with. You always think it is going to clink and thankfully it did for us the other day.”

Thistle put breathing space between themselves and Dundee as they brought an end to their eight-game losing run with a deserved win at Dens Park.

The Jags will face Aberdeen, Rangers, Celtic and Hearts in a tricky run of fixtures leading up to New Year.

And boss Archibald is determined to take something from their Saints clash as they look to make amends for the 2-0 defeat to Tommy Wright’s side on home soil earlier this term.

He said: “We know the fixtures we have got coming up. We dropped a lot of points at home there against teams that are round about us in the league at the moment.

“So it is vital that we go to Perth and get something going into the run of games that we have got. We have got Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers so there are tough games ahead for us.

“We had a good record last year against St Johnstone, we won all three games.

“But they came and turned us over comfortably here earlier on and that was one that we had no complaints about because they were by far the better team on the day.

“Compared to the other night at Dens when we had eleven good performances, we probably had one or two maybe in that game. We need a much better performance on the day to go and beat them.”