BREAKING up is hard to do, croaked Neil Sedaka in a wistful lament to a lost love.

Partick Thistle’s Martin Woods can sympathise.

“We had quite a few disagreements and finally agreed that our relationship had run its course,” he reflected of his parting of ways with former club Ross County. “I felt as if a burd was splitting up with me.”

Woods has found comfort in the embrace of Partick Thistle and while the Jags have a big game tonight against Aberdeen, the visit of his old club to Firhill this Saturday is giving him plenty to ponder.

Thistle’s win against Hamilton last Saturday, allied to County’s defeat at Hibernian, saw the Glasgow club move off the bottom of the Premiership as they leapfrogged the Highlanders

Woods, who had two stints with Ross County, still has plenty of connections with them but in the cut-and-thrust of the scrap for top flight survival, there can be no room for old pals’ acts.

“I have a lot of good friends at Ross County but putting them bottom of the league doesn’t mean anything more to me,” he said. “We are in a WhatsApp chat with seven or eight of the boys up there and we speak most nights. We have Paul Quinn, Michael Gardyne, Craig Curran, Ian McShane, Rafa De Vita and Liam Boyce. There is banter every night.

“It’s good to be off the bottom psychologically and, going forward, I don’t care who’s bottom or second bottom as long as it’s not us.”

After his contract wrangles at County, Woods is playing catch up but he is slowly getting back up to spend in the breathless arenas of the domestic scene.

“I’d not played in seven months but that’s now four games in two weeks,” he wheezed. “I’ve been chucked in at the deep but I don’t mind that. I’ll give my all in every game. I’m trying to get fit as we go along and the manager is trying to gauge how long I can last in games.

“I hit the buffers after about 78 minutes against Hamilton on Saturday so it’s gradually getting better. These games in quick succession have helped me. When we come back after the winter break, I’ll be on an even playing field with the rest of the league.”

Another player who has lacked game-time this season is Aberdeen defender Mark Reynolds

However, he played against Celtic and while that game ended in defeat, he stressed that his team’s season was still going along nicely.

Reynolds said: “We are still sitting in a good place in the league and the Partick game is the chance to claim another three points. Then we have Hearts which will take us into the New Year - so they are two massive games.

“We want to keep sight of Celtic for as long as we can. All we can do is continue trying to collect the points .

“There are teams creeping up the way so it’s going to be an interesting fight for the remainder of the season in terms of who is going to finish in the top three or four positions.

“We need to keep picking up points and we have done that in the last few years.

“We have always done well over this period and it’s set us up well, and we’d like to do the the same thing again.”