Steven Lawless today expressed his embarrassment at Partick Thistle’s Killie calamity and vowed to make amends against Motherwell tomorrow night.

The struggling Jags were left rooted to the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table after a grisly 5-1 mauling at Rugby Park at the weekend.

Kilmarnock hadn’t won in the league on their own turf this season but they ended that wretched run in style as Steve Clarke’s men ran riot and racked up their biggest home league win since 2006.

It was a dismal day for Thistle who remain four points adrift of the rest at the foot of the standings and Lawless is desperate to find redemption.

The Firhill side finished last season’s top flight campaign with a 5-0 defeat to Celtic and a 6-0 reversal against Aberdeen.

Saturday’s savaging cut deep, however, and Lawless knows the Jags have to respond to the set back with purpose.

The 26-year-old said: “It was hard to take and it was the most down and embarrassed I’ve felt after a game to be honest. But this is where we need to bounce back. Yes, Celtic beat us 5-0 last season but they would do that four or five times to teams during a season. That’s their strength and quality. But Kilmarnock are round about us in the league. With all due respect to them, we shouldn’t be losing five goals to them.

“We were in training on Monday and there were a few words spoken. But you need that after that kind of result. Hopefully that has cleared the air and we can move on to the game on Wednesday and redeem ourselves because we have to.

“We all had our say. The manager obviously has the final say but we got a few grievances out in the open and had a chance to say what we thought went wrong. It gets it all out there but then it’s forgotten about and nobody holds any grudges. Sometimes you need these things to help push you on rather than just staying in the same routine. Our routine is obviously not working so maybe this is what we needed.”

This time last year, Thistle embarked on a resurgence which was aided by a training camp in the pleasant climes of Spain which seemed to have a galvanising effect.

Lawless added: “Getting away last season was a big thing. We had a full week of training guaranteed. You never know what the weather will be like here and it can be hard to get the facilities here to get some good work done."

Before any trips to warmer weather this time, Thistle have six games left in December as the frenzied festive fixture list builds towards the winter shut down. After Motherwell tomorrow, Alan Archibald’s men face Dundee, Celtic, Hamilton, Aberdeen and Ross County before the bells chime on 2017. It will be a crucial spell.

Lawless added: “Most games are must win when you are down at the bottom. It’s a massive month but it would be a massive month regardless of where we were in the league just because of the number of points on offer. It’s actually perfect time to put a run together. We have so many games coming up. If you can get a bit of momentum then you get yourself in a much better position.

“It’s good that we’ve got a game so quickly after that defeat on Saturday. It’s a perfect chance to put things right again.”