Alan Archibald urging his players to trust in their abilities
Alan Archibald has urged his Partick Thistle players to be brave as they look to save their Premiership status against Livingston on Sunday.
The Jags have it all to do in the play-off final second leg after going down 2-1 to Championship side Livi on Thursday night.
The defeat was made worse by a poor performance from Archibald's side, who took the lead before struggling to find any fluency and being out-worked by the West Lothian outfit, but Archibald denies his players were put off their stride by their opponents.
"No I don't think so,'' he told Press Association Sport when asked if they were taken aback by the approach. "I think it's well documented how Livingston play, I think everybody knows that.
"We are well aware of that, but I think we got caught up in the occasion and we probably played more long balls than we have all season.''
He added: "I think we got dragged into playing long, aimless balls.
"The game settled down after about 25 minutes and that's when it was on to pass it, but I don't think we did that and that's the bravery we are looking for, and we encourage them to take the ball and trust your ability and pass the ball.''
No team has been relegated from the top flight of Scottish football via the play-offs for three years, but Thistle are facing that possibility at the hands of a Livingston side that surpassed all expectations in their first season back in the Championship en route to a second-placed finish.
With the game on the line, Archibald is aware they cannot afford another poor performance at the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill on Sunday.
"It's a big occasion. We have to make sure we try and play our own game,'' he said.
"We didn't play our own game on Thursday and that was partly down to Livingston stopping us and partly down to us not doing what we're good at.
"We need to make sure everybody wants the ball on Sunday.'