Partick Thistle assistant manager Scott Paterson has told his players that their two home matches before the split are key to securing that much-coveted top six place in the table.

The Jags welcome Ross County to Firhill on Saturday and also have bottom-six strugglers Motherwell to come before the league separates.

With visits to Celtic and Rangers in between those matches, Paterson says that the importance of securing maximum points from their remaining home games cannot be underestimated.

“Saturday’s game is absolutely huge for us,” Paterson said.

“We still have our fate in our own hands, but we were disappointed to lose the late goals in our last two games. If those hadn’t went in, obviously we would be in a much better position.

“But those games are gone now and we can’t change that. The important thing to remember is that we played well in those games and we can take plenty of positives from that into our remaining fixtures.

“We have four matches now that are all equally important, and we will be trying to win them all, but clearly the two home matches represent really good chances for us to get wins on the board and make sure we reach our goal of a top-half finish.

“That is what the boys have been focused on from the start of the season, and we don’t want to end up in a position like we had last year where we had some regrets after coming so close up at Ross County.

“We can’t forget though that at this point of the season, every single team is fighting hard for their own objectives, and the likes of Motherwell are fighting for their lives and the points are just as important for everybody.

“But that’s thinking a bit ahead, and no one here is doing that. All we are focused on is a difficult game against Ross County at the weekend and making sure we get maximum points.”

It was an uncharacteristic error from Tomas Cerny that cost Thistle a victory in their last game before the international break at Kilmarnock.

The time off has given the Jags keeper a long time to stew on his mistake, but Paterson has no worries about the mental strength of the Firhill number one.

“Tomas is probably one of the best professionals I’ve ever come across, so I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he will bounce back from that,” he said.

“He has probably been our most consistent performer over the last two seasons and he has saved us on countless occasions, so it was all quickly forgotten about and certainly no one was pointing the finger at him afterwards.

“These things happen, but the fact that it happens to Tomas so rarely means that it was a bit of a shock. He’ll be absolutely fine though. The timing of the break probably wasn’t ideal for him, but we have no worries about Tomas at all.”

One of the main talking points during the last week from a Thistle perspective was the omission of Liam Lindsay from the Scotland squad for the matches against Canada and Slovenia.

But Paterson has told the young defender to be patient and focus on continuing his rapid improvement to make it impossible for Gordon Strachan to ignore him.

“It’s not for me to say who the Scotland manager should be picking, but I think that if Liam was included it would have been richly deserved,” he said.

“But that’s the manager’s choice, and if Liam wants to be involved in the future he just needs to keep his head down and keep working hard as he has been doing, and his time will come.

“He’s a young man still and he has plenty of time, but I’ve no doubt he will be an international player one day if he continues to improve the way he has been.”