PARTICK THISTLE striker Conor Sammon says that the only way his side will turn around the playoff final is by being themselves, rather than getting drawn into playing the way Livingston want them to.

On too many occasions during the first leg, the Jags went long and direct to a two-pronged attack of Sammon and Kris Doolan, and apart from one moment of quality from Baily Cargill that led to Doolan heading the opener, they failed to trouble Livi goalkeeper Neil Alexander often enough.

That must change in Sunday’s second leg at Firhill if Thistle are to retain their Premiership status, and Sammon says that they must get the ball down and play to their own strengths if they are to turn around the deficit.

"Credit to Livingston - they played well,” said Sammon. “We are frustrated after going a goal up to end up losing it. We look forward to Sunday because we have got an opportunity to save ourselves. It's half time in the tie. We didn't play as well as we can.

"We probably just need to play more football and play to our strengths. It's easy to get drawn into a battle and credit to Livingston because they are very good at playing that way. You can see they work hard for each other. We need to show our ability on the ball and create a few more problems for them. We weren't enough of a threat.

"We're not down and out, it's just frustration. We knew coming into the game the way the game was going to unfold, we knew how hard they work for every ball and that's exactly the way it was, and the frustrating part was that we got involved in that.

“We need to learn from it and move on. We've got an opportunity to overturn the game back at our stadium where we have been playing some good football. I fully believe we can turn it around.

"We need to look to get on the ball. It's easy to lump it and be direct and some teams are very good at that. But that's not our style of play and I don't think that suits us. We've got some good technical footballers as Livingston do as well.

“We need to play to our strengths and get players on the ball causing problems in one v one situations. That's our strengths and we need to focus on them.”

“I have got confidence about our side that we have got enough about us to overturn this result, get back into it and finish the job on Sunday."

Sammon knows that it will take a huge show of character from the Thistle players to overhaul Livingston’s lead in the tie, but he is taking confidence from the way they handled a similarly high-pressure situation on the final day of the regular league season.

"Going into the Dundee game, it was a high-pressure game and we played some good football and got the result we wanted,” he said.

“We can take something from that. And even in the last five games of the season since the split we played some really good stuff and we need to build on that and get back to that because tonight we didn't really show enough.

"We are fully aware of the situation. No one wants to be involved in it at the start of the season. But, we are here now, and it's just about sticking together. It's time to show your character in games like Sunday. “It's an opportunity for the lads to show what they are about and I have got full confidence that we can do that."