Partick Thistle captain Abdul Osman is never one to shy away from a challenge, especially when it comes from a midfielder in the Premiership.

And he has told his pal Marvin Bartley that their friendship will be out the window when Thistle travel to Easter Road to take on Hibs in Saturday’s league opener.

Osman and Bartley go all the way back to their college footballing days, and then played together at Isthmian League outfit Hampton & Richmond Borough.

Bartley told reporters earlier in the week that he is relishing the prospect of going toe to toe with his old friend this weekend, and as you may expect, Osman has responded in kind.

“I know him well,” said the Thistle skipper. “I’ve known him since I was about 16 or 17. Obviously our careers have gone different ways.

“It will be good to see him. If he is saying he is ready for it then I am too! Bring it on, it’s going to be a good battle. Two giants in the middle of the park!

“I played with him and against him in our non-league games, we came through together.

“I played against him at college level, because we went to different colleges that were quite close together, so there was a bit of rivalry there.

“I’ve come up against him a few times, and we went away together to play for the English colleges as well. He was a centre-back in those days, so we’ll see how he does in midfield.”

Osman can’t wait to get back into action in the Premiership, and he believes it is good for the league to have Hibs back at the top level.

But while he will enjoy the experience of going back to experience the atmosphere at Easter Road, he has warned Neil Lennon’s side that they are in for a battle if they are eyeing up the Jags’ place in the top six.

“I played there before but that was ages ago when I was at Gretna,” he said. “It’s obviously different now, they have different players, and it will be a good test.

“They will be looking to take our top six place, we know it’s going to be a tough league this year.

“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll bring in more players to help us. We have a good core though and I think we will do well this season.

“It’s a bit early to think of this game as laying down a marker, it’s a long season.”

Osman is determined to get Thistle’s season off to a strong start, bucking the trend of the last few seasons where the Firhill outfit have struggled to get going early in the campaign.

He said: “We’ve spoken about that, and I called the gaffer a couple of weeks ago and said ‘Gaffer, is there anything we can do to start better this season?’

“He was saying that we’ve had injuries and all the rest of it, but I think there’s more to it. We can’t start slow.

“Obviously when you have pre-season games there is a slower tempo, and if you take that into the start the season then it’s not going to help.

“We’ve got to start the season playing like we do in January, taking the game to teams and playing on the front foot.

“Last year we started off badly and we ended up making top six, so at the end of the day it’s all about finding some consistency.

“If you go maybe 10 games unbeaten with a few draws and more wins then you’ll be alright in this league. It’s just about getting results together.

“But we can’t start like we did last year, because this season it’s going to be tougher.”