By all accounts, Partick Thistle boss Alan Archibald has been wandering around Firhill bearing the kind of burdensome weight that used to be the reserve of Atlas.

Nine games without a victory in the Ladbrokes Premiership and left rooted to the foot of the table could have cracked the resolve of many a manager and a concerned board.

The faith was kept though and Thistle were rewarded at the weekend with a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Dundee which gave them a much-needed three points and a sizeable lift in morale.

“The longer it was going on without a win it was becoming unbearable,” admitted Archibald, who stepped away from the spotlight in the wake of that victory and let his assistant, Scott Paterson, do the post-match press briefings. “We were saying the same thing every week so it was great to get that monkey off the back and get the first win of the season. It felt worse than previous seasons due to the fact we had injuries as well and that made it tougher.

“The longer the run goes on and the more people talk about it the harder it becomes. It takes a toll on the players and it can start to affect their performances. Even against Dundee at times we looked low on confidence and then people do things they wouldn’t normally do. Hopefully this win takes the burden off them.”

Thistle are no strangers to sluggish starts, of course. At the start of the 2016/2017 campaign, they won their first match of the season and then went on a nine game winless run. Archibald is hoping the Dundee game provides a springboard for a resurgence his side eventually produced last season and ended up with them finishing in the top six.

Winning takes care of everything and Archibald wants the feel good factor to linger for a while yet now that his troops are up and running

He added: “It is a better place to come to if you have won at the weekend, there is no doubt about that. We were in on Sunday for a recovery session and everyone was smiling. It was a massive relief for us after Saturday but we have to take that on now.

“The performance doesn’t matter. I have been on the other side when we have played really well and not taken anything from the game and it is frustrating. We have played a lot better in games this season and lost, so it was all about getting the three points in games.

“The fans had every right to boo us because we hadn’t won a game this season. I thought on Saturday the fans were magnificent, we started badly but they were right behind us. They stick with us even during the bad times. We have to take the positives from Saturday and build on that now.”

Despite the victory at the weekend, Thistle remain stuck at the foot of the table but they have the opportunity to haul themselves off the basement with a proverbial six-pointer against Hamilton, who sit just one point above the Jags.

Archibald said: “We have a massive incentive to go above Hamilton in the league and they have the chance to pull away from us so it’s an important game for both teams. If we win it will take us off the bottom of the league and mentally that can be huge for everyone.”

Thistle don’t have their injury problems to seek. Club captain Abdul Osman is still around six weeks away from a return as he continues to recover from a shoulder problem.