Christie Elliot is hoping the luck of the Irish can help improve Partick Thistle’s fortunes as the Jags look for some much needed festive cheer.

The Maryhill men slithered to the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership last Friday night after a 4-1 defeat to a rampant Celtic inflicted a fourth defeat in five games on Alan Archibald’s strugglers.

Thistle travel to the Capital this weekend for a testing encounter at Tynecastle against Hearts but Elliot insists the Jags will venture east in a purposeful mood after getting away from the toil and trouble of league duty with a team bonding trip to Dublin.

Elliott, 25, said: “We always tend to do something at this time of the year and given the way things have been going it maybe came about at the right time.

“It was a chance to get away from it for a bit and have a team weekend where we all get together and sort a few things out. It was nice and relaxing.

“We’ve had a hard run of games recently and we’ve got a hard run coming up. We went over the Celtic game and got a few things out in the open; what went well, what didn’t. We still have a great team spirit and I think we came back from the trip with a bit more positivity. This is a new week and a fresh start.”

Thistle lost 2-1 to Hearts the last time the two sides met on league duty at Firhill. The Edinburgh outfit are in the midst of a major transition with Ian Cathro taking up the managerial reins from the departed Robbie Neilson.

Cathro’s first outing at the helm ended in a 2-0 defeat to Rangers at the weekend and the spotlight will be very much on the hosts when Thistle arrive in Gorgie.

Elliott added: “There’s been a lot said about the new Hearts manager and it’s a massive game for both teams. They have the new man in and there will be plenty of focus on him. He’ll still be trying to settle into the job and hopefully that’s something we can take advantage of. It’s always a very hard place to go to but we are going with confidence.”

Thistle could do with a timely tonic. The wounds from Friday night’s defeat to Celtic cut deep and there isn’t much time to nurse them given that they make the short trip to the home of the Scottish champions for a return fixture next week.

After that, the Jags face a crucial series of matches against teams that are sitting within touching distance of them in the league table. Ross County, Dundee and Kilmarnock are all coming up before the January shut down.

Elliott said: “Celtic have been unbelievable this season. They are flying and it’s not an ideal time to be playing them twice so quickly. But we’ve got a run of games against teams around us so we can’t complain. We have to make sure we pick up points in those games as there’s not much separating a lot of teams in this league. A couple of wins and we can be right back up there. We just need to find some consistency.”

Meanwhile, Thistle will look to overturn Ade Azeez’s booking for diving in the defeat to Celtic.

The Jags have confirmed they will appeal the decision of referee Craig Thomson, who gave Azeez a yellow card for diving after he went down when trying to round the Celtic keeper Craig Gordon.