STEPHEN O'DONNELL insists Partick Thistle won't rest on their laurels despite taking significant steps towards Premiership safety this season.

The Jags ended their wait for successive top flight wins last month as they saw off St Johnstone and Inverness Caley Thistle at Firhill.

With a nine point advantage over eleventh-placed Motherwell and a 13 point gap back to bottom of the table St Mirren, Alan Archibald's side are on the brink of retaining their Premiership place for another season.

Thistle face Aberdeen and Celtic in the coming days before hosting Motherwell next Saturday and defender O'Donnell hopes they can secure their safety before setting their sights on bettering their tenth-place finish last term.

He said: "We would like rather be a bit higher but we would certainly rather be here than below it. We are looking to improve on last season and if that is ninth, great.

"We would love it to be eighth or seventh and with a couple of wins on the bounce, we have put ourselves in a good position.

"But making sure we are safe is the most important thing and that is what we are focused on. Once we have done that, then we can look at moving up the table.

"Nobody has to stop us getting ahead of ourselves. We know how quickly it can change and what can happen.

"We just need to focus on ourselves and hopefully maintain, and increase, the gap between ourselves and the teams below us.

"We talked about top six and we didn't get it so we are just focusing on the next game and looking to pick up three points and then we will look on to the next game."

Thistle return to action after the international break in high spirits after their impressive back-to-back home triumphs but face a tricky trip to Pittodrie tomorrow afternoon.

The Dons were 2-0 winners in the North East earlier in the campaign before an Adam Rooney penalty clinched the points in the return tie at Firhill.

Derek McInnes' side still harbour ambitions of the Premiership title this term and O'Donnell knows Thistle will have to be at their best if they are to complete a top flight hat-trick.

He said: "It was nice to go into the break on the back of two wins, it was the first time we have done it in this league.

"It would have been nice to keep the momentum going but the break has given us a chance to prepare for a huge three games before the split and if we can get a few points from those games it would put us in a good position.

"It will be tough but we are working hard and going into the Aberdeen game with confidence.

"Aberdeen have been flying, they have been very good this season. But we need to focus on our jobs and if we turn up and play to our potential then we can win the game.

"We will have our jobs to do and we need to make sure that we are on our game and hopefully we can come away with the win."