ALAN ARCHIBALD admits Partick Thistle have a spring in their step after a much-needed win over Motherwell.

The Jags were deserved 3-1 victors at Firhill as they climbed to seventh in the Premiership standings thanks to goals from Stuart Bannigan, Kris Doolan and Stephen O'Donnell.

Thistle have to wait until a week on Saturday to return to top-flight action as they look to record back-to-back wins for the first time this term when they face Dundee United.

And Archibald is pleased to be heading into the international break with another three points on their tally as his side recorded a much-needed triumph.

He said: "When you get a win you do want to try and build on the momentum of that as quickly as possible but we picked up a few knocks and it will be good to be able to give the players a couple of days off before we start the hard work again.

"Victory on Saturday though means that we will approach the Dundee United game, which will be a very difficult match, with a bit of confidence."

Thistle were without key men Gary Fraser and Kallum Higginbotham for the Steelmen clash but still emerged with a well earned three points as they piled more pressure on Stuart McCall's strugglers.

Victory at Firhill came a week after the Jags slumped to a disappointing defeat to Kilmarnock and Archibald was pleased with the response of his players as they got back to winning ways.

He said: "We spoke about that before the game and the importance of not feeling sorry for ourselves because players are missing and I felt that the players responded really well to that.

"It was an excellent three points for us and first and foremost I have to praise the players for their workrate.

"We didn't work hard enough at Kilmarnock last week but we certainly did [on Saturday].

"They performed the ugly side of the game really well and that allowed us to play and we scored some good goals which I was delighted about.