ALAN ARCHIBALD hopes Partick Thistle can spoil the Premiership party at Easter Road and upset the odds with victory over Hibernian.

The Jags are the visitors to Leith this weekend as Neil Lennon’s side look to mark their return to the top flight with a win on the opening weekend of the campaign.

After storming to the Championship title last season, all eyes will be on Hibs as they attempt to hit the ground running this term.

But Thistle boss Archibald is confident his side can silence the Easter Road crowd and give the travelling red and yellow army something to shout about.

He said: “We have a tough start but we have to play these teams at some time.

“We have most of the big guys at the start but Easter Road is a great place to play.

“I took in the Edinburgh derby last year and you forget how good the atmosphere is there.

“We have to embrace it and these are the places you enjoy playing at. We have to make sure we go and perform.

“It could work in our favour that people are expecting Hibs to win.

“We have stressed to the players, though, that they have to remember they are a Premiership side too.

“We have been in the top league for the last four years and we have to show our quality.

“It isn’t all about Hibs, and as much as I admire the work Neil has done there, we have to concentrate on ourselves.

“If we can use that noisy crowd to turn against them then that’s great, but it’s all about what we do.”

Thistle head into the new top-flight term on the back of wins over St Mirren, Airdrie and Stranraer as they progressed out of their Betfred Cup group.

St Johnstone lie in wait next week for Archibald’s side but all attentions are firmly fixed on the first league action of the summer on Saturday. Archibald said: “You look forward to the start of the season and we have a massive game so we are all excited. The Betfred Cup is good but it’s still not the real thing.

“You need to win the cup games but you aren’t quite there in terms of fitness, but it does give you the chance to blow away some of the cobwebs.

“It’s the bread and butter of the league and we can’t wait.”

The trip to Easter Road is the first match of a difficult run for Archibald’s side as they also get set to face Celtic, Aberdeen and Rangers in the opening weeks of the campaign.

But the Firhill boss is determined to avoid another sluggish start as the Jags set their sights on a top-six berth once again in the coming months.

He said: “It is crucial we get some early points on the board because it was difficult last year.

“We did well to come back from it but we don’t want to keep doing that again. We won our Betfred Cup games and our fi rst league game then we went on a downward spiral where we didn’t win in our next nine.

“It’s important you get early points, we have a tough run, but the more you can get the better.

“ We played a lot of good stuff during that run but we didn’t win games, then we picked up points when we weren’t playing so well.

“It is a real challenge again this year to make top six because Hibs will be expected to be up there. All we can do is focus on ourselves and be the best of the rest.”

Archibald added defender Jordan Turnbull to his ranks this week as he completed a move from Coventry City on a season-long loan deal.

And the Jags boss remains in the market for further reinforcements as he attempts to finalise his plans for another crack at the top six this term.

Archibald said: “Hopefully we have one coming in soon, but we are three short. It is the hardest bit as a manager.

“We lost Liam Lindsay and Ade Azeez, which we weren’t planning on, so that added to our workload but hopefully we can get there.”