Adam Barton reckons struggling Partick Thistle are heading for a must-win showdown with Hamilton Accies this weekend.

But the Jags defender insists there is enough spirit and quality in the Firhill squad to turn their fortunes around and kick the losing habit.

Thistle slithered to the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership on Saturday after they were floored by Joe Dodoo’s last-gasp sucker punch which gave Rangers a 2-1 win in Maryhill.

Barton, 25, earned plenty of plaudits for his calm, considered industry and defensive marshalling but it’s points the Jags are in desperate need of as they sagged to a third successive defeat.

Alan Archibald’s men make the short trip to Hamilton this weekend and despite being just a point behind their ninth-placed rivals, Barton knows the encounter is already something of a proverbial six-pointer.

He said: “It is a must win, there’s no other way about it. We have to go there and win. This week it feels like we’ll have to throw everything at it.

“We can’t afford to get cut adrift. If you don’t pick up points over Christmas that can easily happen. We have Celtic coming up twice in the next couple of weeks but they are a team out on their own this season. If you can get anything from them at all then it’s a brilliant day. When you get into a losing run it’s hard to get out of. When you’re winning, you get into a rhythm. In some ways losing can have the same effect but negatively. It’s a habit we seem to have picked up and we need to get ourselves out of it.”

Not for the first time this season, Thistle’s players were left to rake over the debris of yet another damaging late concession which has cost them dearly in the current campaign.

Barton added: “It’s like a mentality that we have picked up. Once we score we seem to defend and be happy with one goal. We need to change that into a positive one so that we score one and keep going and try to finish games off.

“We’ve had maybe four or five games like the Rangers one this season when we’ve come away thinking ‘how have we not got the three points?’ When you come away with nothing it is hard to take and the Rangers game was just another of those games. The boys are still feeling it.

"It’s happened so much this season and we are trying to figure out what it is we need to do. It’s something we can’t quite put our finger on. We worked well on Saturday and put things from training into practice and we did it fine. It was just that little moment at the end. We haven’t had much luck and we have to change our luck. A month ago we were on a good run. It’s just not going our way at the moment but with the squad we have, it’s definitely going to turn around.”