Partick Thistle emerged from two difficult fixtures against Aberdeen and Hearts with plenty of credit for their displays, but that was cold comfort to left-back Callum Booth.

The Jags defender says that the Firhill club can no longer accept pats on the back for valiant performances against the league’s big guns, insisting that points are the only things that matter.

Booth reckons that Celtic, Rangers, Hearts and Aberdeen are a cut above the rest of the teams in this season’s Premiership, but that shouldn’t stop Thistle aiming to beat them every time they play them.

That’s why he was just as down after losing the last two games as he would have been had they lost to anyone else in the division.

“It was absolutely gutting to come away from those two games with zero points,” Booth said.

“We’ve been in the Premiership for four seasons now, so we can’t go into these games thinking a point is a good result, because there’s 12 games in the season now where you are going to be up against the four top teams.

“We can’t go into them thinking ‘oh, a point is good here’, we’ve got to start thinking that we can take points off the bigger teams every time we play them.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve been really poor against the bigger sides, and even last season where we had a couple of good performances away at Parkhead and at home to Aberdeen, we still got beat in the end.

“That’s the same story with these two games, but I feel that we’re definitely going in the right direction, and we have to remain upbeat.

“It could definitely be a big factor in where we end up, so we have to take points against them as well as the teams that are in and around us.

“The positives are that we played really well in the last two games, and we could easily be sitting here with at least two or three points from them, so we just need to keep going in that direction.

“We’re going to have a lot of hard games this year with four of the so-called top teams in the country in the division, but we have good belief and hope going forward that we can really compete with them.”

Thistle’s fixtures after the international break look a little kinder, on paper at least, with St Johnstone, Motherwell and Kilmarnock in their next three outings.

Despite the Saints’ fourth-placed finish last season, the Jags enjoyed an unbeaten record against them last term, winning twice and drawing once in their three meetings.

Booth however knows that the players will have to give their all in every game, regardless of the opposition, if they are to realise their aim of breaking into the top half this season.

“They are still going to be hard games,” he said. “Apart from the top four all of the other teams are similar in terms of size and ability.

“These matches might look a bit easier on paper, but they are still going to be tough, and we’re still going to have to work hard to get three points from these fixtures.”

On a personal level, Booth feels he hasn’t been at his best so far this campaign after surgery on his foot during the summer left him short of full fitness.

For him, the break from competitive action has come at a good time, and he hopes to be fully motoring when league action gets back underway next weekend.

“I’ve been feeling not too bad, but I’ve not been feeling great,” he said. “It’s been getting better every week fitness-wise though, and after the international break I should be back to feeling perfect.

“I’ve had a few niggles which hasn’t been great, but I’ve managed to play every game which is a good thing, and hopefully the break will get me back to my best.”