PARTICK THISTLE captain Abdul Osman has told his teammates they better be prepared to fight for their Premiership lives when they visit Hamilton on Saturday.

Osman was left devastated by Thistle’s late capitulation in the defeat to Dundee at Firhill at the weekend, a result that adds to the importance of the fixture at the Superseal with the Jags just one point ahead of Accies in tenth place having played two games more.

And Osman is under no illusions about the type of task that lies ahead of them when they visit Lanarkshire, warning that the Thistle players will have to be up for the battle to earn a crucial three points.

“We’re in for a fight at Hamilton and we have to be up for it,” said Osman.

“We know exactly what type of game it is going to be, and we know exactly how Hamilton will approach it. They will try to make it difficult and ugly, so if we’re not up for that, it will be a very difficult day for us.

“There probably won’t be too much football being played, but I believe we have the quality at the top end to win if we can win the battle in other areas of the pitch.

“It is up to all of us to stand up and be counted now, but particularly as captain, I have to set the example. There will be no quarter given. We have to grit our teeth and go there and get a result.

“We can easily go to Hamilton and win. We’ve done it before and it is vital that we do it again.

“The next two games are crucial. Both are winnable games. We have a really difficult run up to the split, although we will go into all of those games believing we can take something.

“We want to go into those matches on a high, and if we can get wins in our next two, it would go a long way to improving our situation.”

Osman admits that it may take a day or two for the disappointing nature of the Dundee defeat to lift, but he says that Thistle will be working hard in training to rectify the mistakes they made in the second half of that game, particularly in sitting too deep as the second half wore on.

“We were distraught after the game,” he said. “It was a great first half, but to then lose the game in that crazy 10 minutes was hard to take. It’s happened to us before, and it’s something we need to fix.

“At 1-0, it is always a dangerous situation. Teams have got nothing to lose, and can go for the kill.

“We kind of retreated, and that was disappointing. We couldn’t get out in the second half, and we were surprised by that.

“Maybe because it was such a big game we felt as if we had to try to hold onto what we had, and maybe it just happened naturally.

“It was the wrong tactic, and we paid the price. It’s vital that we don’t do it again if we are winning at Hamilton. We have to get up the pitch, because we don’t want a repeat of the Dundee game.”

Osman felt he was fouled in the build-up to Dundee’s crucial equaliser, but was candid enough to admit his own culpability in the goal.

“The ball bounced in front of me, and I probably should have gotten to it quicker,” he said.

“I thought I had time, but I looked around the corner and I saw their player coming in, so I got to the ball as quickly as I could, and I felt like I was fouled.

“It was the second phase from that the goal came from though. The keeper makes a great save and we don’t react, so it was an accumulation of things really.

“Me and the gaffer have spoken about it, so hopefully it won’t happen again.”