The Met Office warnings may have been out in force for Storm Doris yesterday but Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald is urging his players to be on their guard for a Hearts backlash this weekend.

The Jags welcome the Jambos to Firhill tomorrow looking to build on last week’s win over Hamilton and bolster their assault on a top six place.

But Archibald knows that a hurting Hearts will be able to prove a point after a wretched surrender to city Rivals Hibs in the Scottish Cup replay on Wednesday night.

Archibald said: “I hope we don’t get the backlash. I think their (Hearts) manger said it all. Hibs looked up for it and the players also said that after it and they played it more like a derby.

“I think every manager looks for a reaction after a bad result or a disappointing performance. I know I certainly do. As their manager said he wasn’t happy with it so I would imagine they would come out all guns blazing against us.”

In this fickle game, Archibald knows that sluggish performances, like the one Hearts produced the other night having surged to impressive wins over Rangers and Motherwell in recent weeks, can happen at any time.

Archibald added: “It can be so frustrating for a manager when you get a result or performance like that just when you think you can just go out and play. It’s not just about that, it’s about battling as well.

“I think in any game you need to win your personal battles, but probably more so in Scotland. It’s a big part of it in games here, especially in the first 15 or 20 minutes, and if you are not up to it then it’s hard to get out of it. It’s massive to start games well and then try to build on what you have.”

In Archibald’s time at the Thistle helm, the Jags have lost five times to Hearts in nine meetings between the teams.

“It’s not as bad as it is against some other teams,” he said with a wry smile when reminded of this record.

The Capital club’s last visit to Maryhill in August saw them pinch all three points with a last-gasp winner from Tony Watt.

“Last season we were poor against Hearts this season we have drawn one and lost one and the games have been very close,” said Archibald. “Their keeper was man of the match in the last game so that gives us confidence that we can do well against them. “Our form had been disappointing so it was good to win last week and now we have three or four games coming up at home and we want to do better.

“You need to try to get back to back wins to climb the table.

“You look around to see who everyone else is playing but then results don’t go the way you expect them to go.

“We were in the top six for about 20 hours and then Dundee beat Rangers and earlier Killie came close to beating Aberdeen.

“So we can only concentrate on ourselves.

With Kris Doolan rediscovering the route to goal with a brace against Hamilton last weekend, Archibald is keen to see others chip in and bolster the credit rating. “We rely on Kris,” he added. “We took him out for a couple of weeks because he wasn’t scoring, hoping for a reaction and we got it with two last week. So we’re hoping that’s the start of a scoring run for him. But we do need others because we had gone four league matches without scoring.”

The hosts will have Christie Elliott back again this weekend following a suspension but Sean Welsh will be out of action for a few weeks now. “He has gone for surgery on a fractured metatarsal but hopefully he will not be out for more than eight weeks,” revealed Archibald.