IT’S not often that a team can come away from a 5-0 hounding being able to draw some positives from the 90 minutes, but not even that heavy defeat to Celtic could put a dampener on the mood around Partick Thistle this week.

Of course, no professional footballer is happy to be on the receiving end of such a scoreline, but Tam O’Ware was able to put that into perspective with both the level of opponent, and in the grander scheme of what has happened at Firhill over the last few days.

The defender says that the mood around the Championship strugglers has lifted considerably in the days since Ian McCall and Alan Archibald’s return to the club as part of a management team that also includes Neil Scally, and now he is intent on taking the lessons from Celtic Park as well as the ideas of his boss into hauling Thistle off the bottom of the table.

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“Our shape in the first half was good,” O’Ware said. “We matched Celtic and had a few half chances but the new gaffer hasn’t had time to work with us and get his ideas across.

“Hopefully he’ll get his ideas across and we will start climbing our way up the table.

“There’s definitely been a change in mood. The gaffer’s come in and said it’s a clean slate for everybody, which I think it has to be.

“He said we shouldn’t be in the position we are, but we know as players we have let ourselves down and the club. It’s about going about it the right way now and getting the manager’s ideas onto the pitch. We need to start afresh and try to impress him.”

O’Ware refused to lay any blame at the door of previous manager Gary Caldwell for the club’s current plight, but he does think the credentials both McCall and Archibald have as Thistle legends can only be a good thing for the future direction of the club.

“Gary Caldwell did well for us I thought, he was bright,” he said. “But as players we have let ourselves down. Any manager could be in charge but we could still be making the same mistakes and we need to try an change that.

“We need to look at ourselves and now with two Partick Thistle legends in charge, it’s now something different.

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“Archie has come back and you don’t often see a manager coming back as an assistant. It’s only going to benefit us and I’m not going to argue with it.

“Someone of his stature and Ian McCall know the club inside out and what Alan Archibald has done for this club ensures he’s forever a legend. The two of them are legends.

“I don’t think many boys will judge him on his last year and I hope they don’t.

“To have them both in charge is brilliant.”

McCall intimated after the Celtic match that he is going to encourage his Thistle team to play in a more expansive fashion, but O’Ware thinks they also have to become a team that the opposition don’t relish coming up against.

“Nobody is shying away from the fact we haven’t been good enough and the new manager is going to change things,” he said. “He’s going to get us to play in a different way.

“I think we are wee bit too easy to play against and things are a bit too nice sometimes.

“The gaffer will change things and make us harder to play against.

“We have quality in there, it’s about showing it on the park and getting the confidence up.”