PARTICK THISTLE’S Stevie Lawless is under no illusions as to quite how important his team’s victory over Hamilton was last Saturday.

And the midfielder is optimistic that the squad can build on that momentum to not only avoid relegation, but also to escape the dreaded play-offs.

The Jags came from behind to snatch a vital 2-1 win over play-off rivals Hamilton last weekend in their first post-split game which lifted the Glasgow side into eleventh place in the Scottish Premiership. And Lawless knows that had his team not grabbed those three points, things would be looking very different with just four matches of the season remaining.

“That win was massive last weekend," he said.

"We knew we had to win so it was good to do that and it has set us up for the remaining games.

"If we’d been beaten at the weekend, the gap between us and Hamilton would have been eight points so to have got those two goals in the second half showed good character by the boys."

Thistle are now one point above bottom placed Ross County and just two behind Hamilton and with an away game against St Johnstone on Saturday looming, Lawless is upbeat about the mood the players are in, and refutes any suggestion that the pressure is negatively affecting them.

“The mood in the squad is good and I use the pressure as a motivation," he said.

"I feel like the pressure gives you that extra edge and I think most of the boys feel the same way. Hopefully we can use it to drive us on to more victories like last Saturday.”

And Lawless is confident that the Jags can pick up enough points in the remaining four games to ensure they are not even occupying the play-off spot come the end of the season, never mind facing automatic relegation.

“I think we can avoid even the play-off spot," he said.

"If we hadn’t won at the weekend, I think getting the play-off spot would have been our main objective but we’ve now managed to turn the bottom of the table into a mini league with four of us in it. Our first aim is to get above Hamilton at the weekend so hopefully we can take care of business in Perth and other results can go our way.”