IT'S ironic Martin Woods is in a WhatsApp group chat with the Ross County players.

The Partick Thistle man's task tonight is to leave his former team-mates, who he won the League Cup with, grumbling: 'What's app? We are going doon, that's what's app.'

Should Thistle beat the Dingwall men at Firhill, it would leave County five points adrift at the bottom with two games to go.

The flip side is that if County could win, they will send Partick down to 12th place.

At this stage, alas, friendship is thrown through the window.

“I don’t want a lot of my mates to suffer," admitted Woods. "It is hard but I have to go out and get the victory for Partick.

"We have some good people here and the last thing I want to do is have them lose their job.

"We have people behind the scenes who work hard for us and a relegation could impact them.

You don’t know if we go down what the club will do. We have to take care of our job first for everyone connected with this club.

"We have to go and try and do it on the park and ease their worries. It is something we have spoken about and we want to go out and do it.

"It is in our own hands and we want to achieve that over the next three games.

Woods is in a difficult position.

He is a great admirer of the County co-managers and yet it is his job to send them into the Championship.

But better then than him.

“Stuart Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson are brilliant," said Woods. "I speak to Stuart regularly and he's someone who will be a really good coach.

“I could see his ideas when I was up there and winning the league with the Under-20s was incredible, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about Fergie, although I wasn’t involved in any of his coaching.

“It’s been a lot more positive since they two took over but is it too little, too late? I’ve got no room for sentiment on Friday and I need to take care of the job for Partick Thistle and hopefully we get the win.

"I want to get a result for us. I don’t think any of the boys will say if we win that I got them relegated – it is over the whole season."