STEVIE LAWLESS insists he is ready to take on the responsibility of becoming a creative force for Partick Thistle in the wake of their disappointing start to the season.

The Jags have failed to score in six of their seven games so far, including a League Cup loss at home to Championship side Falkirk, with the diminutive winger conceding that chances have been hard to come by.

He believes there was progress made during the second half of the weekend’s 2-0 home loss to Aberdeen, though, with the visiting goalkeeper Danny Ward being forced to make a couple of important saves.

And he accepts that he must use the self-belief taken from two years in the top division to step forward and shoulder the burden of finding a way to prise open Premiership defences before the campaign develops into a relegation battle.

“Naturally, it is all going to fall on the creative players if you are not scoring,” he said. “I can’t speak for the rest of the boys, but I am certainly comfortable with taking on the responsibility of trying to make it happen.

“I feel we can create through me and a few of the other boys and I am not one for hiding. I will always try to get on the ball and create things.

“I have played against most teams and most players in the Premiership over the past couple of seasons and you do get used to it. You understand the way they play and, with that knowledge, I have to be confident.

“We all have to be confident and be determined to get on the ball and play the way we know we can.

“We made a good few chances against Aberdeen and I am sure we will be OK if we keep doing that. It would have been easy for us to feel reluctant to get on the ball against Aberdeen after losing in the League Cup to Falkirk in midweek, so it was a plus that we passed it around a little.

“Naturally, you are not going to be able to do that all the time against Aberdeen because they are a good, defensive team, but we always tried to hurt them.”

Having established themselves as a Premiership team, all the talk around Firhill in the summer revolved around setting the target of finishing in the Top Six. Despite being five points off that position after just six fixtures, Lawless insists that remains the aim.

“The results definitely haven’t dented that belief,” he said. “If you look at the fixtures, we had some tough games.

“We should maybe have taken more from the 2-2 draw with Kilmarnock and we were down to 10 men against Hamilton.

“We really aren’t that far away from sixth as it is, anyway. It is such a tight league and we are only a few games into the season.”

Thistle boss Alan Archibald opted to use Mathias Pogba as a lone striker against the Dons without any great reward, but Lawless insists it would be wrong to judge the big centre-forward until his team-mates learn his game and start providing him with better service.

“Mathias is completely different to Kris Doolan and I suppose you do get used to playing with a certain type of striker,” said Lawless. “I am sure we will all link up a lot better when he has been in the team for a while, but I don’t think we were that far off it against Aberdeen.

“There were a couple of balls just a couple of inches over his head and we just have to learn the runs he makes and times he makes them. It is good for us to have different options up front.”

Archibald was pleased with elements of his side’s display against Aberdeen with Lawless choosing to focus on the second half display as a reason for optimism.

“In most of the games, we have not really created much,” he said. “I actually believe the Aberdeen game was a big step forward because they are a really good team.

“In the first half, I think we did really well just containing them because they were always going to come out quickly and press us.

“In the second, we made some clear chances that we could maybe have done better with. I know we have got to take them, but it was a big, big improvement on the midweek cup defeat to Falkirk.”

Adam Rooney was guilty of a blatant handball prior to scoring Aberdeen’s opener on 49 minutes and Lawless believes that was a turning point in the game.

“It was a big decision,” he said. “I don’t think it should have been given. The handball has obviously helped him bring the ball down in the six-yard box before scoring.

“If that hadn’t been given, we would have had more to play for. As it was, I think a few of the boys’ heads went down.”