ALAN ARCHIBALD has insisted that his Partick Thistle players can have no excuses as the battle to beat the drop intensifies.

The Jags are in the midst of a wretched run of form and have lost four of their last five matches which has left them mired in the relegation play-off place.

With a huge encounter looming with bottom-of-the-table Ross County next week, Archibald is desperate for his team to get something to build on at Easter Road tomorrow as Thistle look to make some Capital gains against high-flying Hibernian.

The Firhill team’s last visit to Edinburgh just before the international break ended in a dispiriting 3-0 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle and Archibald knows they have to travel along the M8 with a much better attitude this time.

He said: “It’s not down to luck. Performances have to be good first and foremost. Going into an international break you want a good performance and we didn’t get that. 

“The application has to be better. We’ve been in a relegation battle most of the season and to play the way we did against Hearts was hugely disappointing. 

“We didn’t show enough courage or application to make things happen for ourselves. That’s what we need on Saturday with another tough game. 

“Inconsistency has summed up our season. There was an excuse for that in the first part of the season with the injuries but we have no excuses now. 

“We played well against Aberdeen and it was nearly the same side that went out (against Hearts) and that was disappointing. We have to make things happen, they won’t just happen for us.”

With three games to go before the Ladbrokes Premiership split, Archibald is well aware that Thistle need to find some form quickly before the cut-throat, dog-eat-dog encounters with those in the bottom half of the table bring the campaign to a nail-nibbling conclusion.

“We’ve not had many overall good performances or a complete 90 minutes this season,” conceded Archibald, whose side have lost the previous two matches with Hibernian this season.

“It’s not about that now, it’s just about getting points on the board. 

“We know how big the five games after the split will be and we have three games to get points to make sure we are still in touching distance going into that. 

“Hibs are a top side, they are up there on merit and we need a reaction.”
As the tension builds, Archibald is remaining calm and the Jags manager admits there hasn’t been any hair-dryer treatment or state of the nation addresses in the dressing room.

He said: “We’ve not had to tell them about our situation. The players are not silly and they know where they stand

“We’ve touched on it a few times. The only positive that came out of the Tynecastle game was that we are still in a position to get out of it.

“We’ve never really been out of the trouble. We’ve had one or two good performances but we always knew we needed to put a run together, but we haven’t done that. You have to do that to get out of trouble.”