PARTICK Thistle in a Scottish Cup semi-final? Why not? It’s been that kind of season.

It was back in 2002 when Thistle last found themselves in such a lofty position, a 3-0 defeat to Rangers denied John Lambie’s men a place in the final that year.

And after battling back to a 1-1 draw with Hearts on Monday night, the team sitting bottom of the Championship were at least in the last four draw which took place at Firhill on Monday night.

If Thistle can beat Hearts in Edinburgh next Tuesday, a lot to ask for sure, it’s ‘only’ Inverness standing in their way to a final.

It would be quite Jagsy if they managed to get relegated to the third tier and reach a cup final in the same season.

“It is a massive incentive,” admitted right-back Christie Elliott who scored his team’s equaliser on Monday evening.

“It is a game (the semi-final) we know we can win but obviously we have to put the Hearts replay first and foremost. They are a brilliant team.

“We had to weather the storm in the first half on Monday but in the second half we were much better and we created a number of opportunities.

“We have to take a lot of positives and go to Tynecastle and hopefully get through to the next round.

“It is the best draw we could have asked for in that we avoided Celtic and Rangers.

“We need to beat Hearts so hopefully we can go to Tynecastle without having any fear.”