Partick Thistle supporters may not have been too pleased with the tactics adopted by St Johnstone in midweek as they closed out a 1-0 victory at Firhill, and it certainly wasn’t pretty to watch.

But Thistle midfielder Sean Welsh reckons that it is about time the Jags took a leaf out of the Saints’ book and ditched their nice guy image.

For all the Firhill side are admired for their approach to the game, Welsh believes that they have to take on board some of the lessons handed out to them by Tommy Wright’s men on Wednesday.

“I think sometimes we’re too nice,” Welsh said. “We need to try and see games out and be streetwise like they are.

“You saw it on Wednesday night when they were one up with five minutes left and keeping it in the corner.

“They’re getting fouls and they end up getting one of our players sent off just by being clever, that’s what they are good at.

“You’ve got to give St Johnstone massive credit. They are working on a similar budget and the same type of squad as us, but they’re always pushing towards that top four.

“We’ve got to learn from them. They are well-organised and well regimented at the back, and they’ve got some flair players to work off that.

“Every team can look to them to follow in their footsteps. It can be ugly to play against them at times, but they get results.

“It is about getting that balance between playing ugly and trying to play some nice football at times. You’ve got to take your hat off to them.

“They sneaked the goal against the run of play and then the second half was just a really messy, scrappy game.

“I didn’t think we turned up in the second half and that was disappointing.

“It suited them to sit in and there wasn’t much play really, it was a bit of a mess.

“It’s frustrating but we’ve been on a good run so we just need to pick ourselves up and go again.”

The next challenge facing Thistle as they try to get back on track is a suitably daunting one, with a trip to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie this afternoon.

Welsh is taking confidence from some tight recent matches between the sides, particularly the narrow defeat there in September where Thistle ran the Dons close despite his own late dismissal.

With the improvement in the defensive performances put in by the Jags of late, Welsh has found cause for optimism ahead of such a tough assignment.

“It’s a hard place to go and they’ve got their tails up at the moment,” he said.

“A few of their players are really kicking into form after the break, so it’s going to be a hard task.

“We’ll be ready for it though. We always give Aberdeen a hard game and we’ve been unlucky to lose the games against them this season.

“We’ve been defending well and we’ve been well-organised and keeping clean sheets, which is good because if you then nick a goal you can get the win.

“We’ve really tightened up again, and last night it was just an uncharacteristic error from Callum Booth.

“We’ll need to make sure we’re at it from the first minute, because it is a difficult place to go.

“And I’ll not be talking back to the ref this time!”