PARTICK THISTLE captain Abdul Osman has urged his dispirited teammates to get their heads up and keep believing that they can claw their way clear of relegation, but admits that their season has now entered ‘crunch time’.

Thistle went down to a desperately disappointing four-goal thumping at the hands of Ross County on Tuesday night in the Highlands, a result that sent them to the bottom of the league due to County’s superior goal difference.

And while the Jags haven’t registered a win in their last nine league games, Osman says that they have to believe they can beat in-form Kilmarnock on Saturday to kick-start their battle to stay in the Premiership.

“The main thing is keeping spirits high,” said Osman. “It’s not going to work out on the pitch if we don’t because teams will be out to get us now.

“I’ve full confidence in the team we can do it, and everyone has to believe that. They’re only above us on goal difference so we believe we can do it. I sense the dressing-room believes it too.

“We’re a young team, we’re quite vibrant and I feel we can. I know we’ve been in this position before - we’ve come through it before so why not do it again, even if the games are running out?

“We’re still in the race. We’re not cut adrift so we’ll keep going. It’s going to be tough. Kilmarnock on Saturday’s a winnable game. They’re going well but we’re at home, so we take it from there.

“We have to go back to basics, do what we’re usually good at and try and win a game of football. That’s basically it. We’ll take any kind of result right now, because it’s crunch time.”

Osman was disappointed by the way in which Thistle seemed to capitulate after going a goal down against County, but the Firhill skipper refuted suggestions that the players had downed tools after falling behind.

“When you concede the first goal in a crunch game like this one, it was nervous as you saw, it’s always a blow,” he said.

“We felt we were still in the game but the second and third goals killed it. It was a big game so the boys are down but we’ll erase it and go again on Saturday, which is a massive game. We just have to keep our heads up and go again.

“There wasn’t much said [after the County game] - the gaffer said what he had to, he wasn’t happy. The players were a bit down - we’re grown men, we know we didn’t perform. So, he didn’t have to shout at us.

“It is what it is, so we have to erase it. We have a game on Saturday, so we have to get back on the training ground and fix it.”

After acknowledging the magnitude of the game in the days building up to their trip north to Dingwall, Osman wasn’t about to downplay the significance of the loss to County. And the margin of the defeat was particularly hard for the midfielder to take.

“Basically, the result was the most disappointing thing,” he said. “We knew it wouldn’t be pretty and that we wouldn’t be able to play our football. We knew we’d have to tough it out to get a result, but it didn’t happen that way and the scoreline shows that we got beaten comfortably, which was the main disappointment.”

The contrasting demeanour of County’s hat-trick hero Alex Schalk as he bounded into the press room after the match could hardly have been starker to the downbeat Osman, and the striker says that he and his teammates are ready to do whatever it takes for caretaker managers Stuart Kettlewell and Stevie Ferguson to get the County job on a permanent basis.

“Because they’ve been here they know the club inside out and want to give something back,” Schalk said. “We’d go to hell and back for them as players. That’s what I say; ‘there’s no I in team’. That’s the main thing now. We need to concentrate on us being a team and get out of this position.

“Obviously it’s not up to me, but we should focus on these last few games and get us to safety and I think they would more than deserve to get the job.

“I think the team-bonding is a bit better. They put the players in a good position and we feel like we’ve got an actual plan, a good plan.

“The way we go about it now is a bit more like we’re playing for the team.”