Aaron Muirhead believes that Partick Thistle have the right blend of youth and experience in the dressing room at Firhill to get their bid for promotion to the cinch Premiership over the line.
The centre-back was part of the Jags’ second-tier title-winning team a decade ago, as were long-serving midfielder Stuart Bannigan and winger Stevie Lawless, who returned to Maryhill last summer.
Thistle travel to Hamilton this afternoon knowing anything other than a victory could not only end any hopes of winning the league, but could also prove highly damaging to the team’s prospects of finishing in the play-offs.
Kris Doolan’s side are fourth in the table, six points behind league leaders Dundee with three games to go, although a mere six points separate Inverness in third and Greenock Morton in sixth.
It all adds up to a hectic finale in the Championship but Muirhead is confident that the older players will know what to expect – and the will be able to offer the occasional pearl of wisdom to those who are battling for promotion to the top flight for the first time.
He said: “If you look through our squad, we’ve got a vast experience of boys who have already won promotion and been involved in play-offs, so we can only hope that that helps us in terms of the run-in.
“At the same time, boys who haven’t been involved can maybe go and play free and are a bit more relaxed in terms of what’s at stake. So it could be a benefit but then at the same time it might not be as beneficial as you want.
“The likes of myself, I have been involved in it before, so I can only try to help the younger lads through it and fingers crossed we’re in there, in the play offs, come the end of the season.
“If you don’t enjoy these games [in the run-in] you’re in the wrong profession because growing up these are the kind of games you’ll watch on the telly or you want to be involved in.
“I certainly will be looking forward to the last three games of the season, you know what’s at stake.
“You know that the fans all season, it’s a tough time for everyone, they’ve spent their hard-earned money and they’ve backed us all year. So fingers crossed we can go give them something to cheer us on towards the end of the season and hopefully give them something to celebrate.”
The final few rounds of the Championship season are typically dramatic and this campaign is no different. And with everything to play for and nothing set in stone, there are bound to be a few more twists and turns before it all shakes out.
“I don’t think I’ve experienced it quite as tight as this,” Muirhead said. “Obviously I have been involved, been in and about the play-offs.
“I think we were secured in the play-offs and it was just a case of we had to try to win our last game so that we could finish second when we were at Falkirk and we managed to do that. But I don’t think I have been involved in anything quite as tight as this.
“I think there are maybe a couple of teams who have maybe got nothing to play for, but everyone else, they’re fighting for something so it certainly makes an interesting end to the season.”
With Accies fighting for their lives towards the bottom of the table, neither side will be short of motivation for this afternoon’s encounter at the ZLX Stadium – and Muirhead is expecting a tricky contest.
“Definitely,” he added. “Although they’ve been losing recently, it has been by the odd goal so they’ll be fighting for their lives and that sometimes can be just as difficult as a team who is fighting to get in the play-offs, maybe even more difficult.
“So we will be well-organised and fingers crossed we can go there and get three points. We just need to focus on ourselves, go and win the games and the rest of the games will take care of themselves.”
