MIDFIELDER Adam Barton insists Partick Thistle won’t be resting on their laurels despite sealing their top-six place with a win over Motherwell on Saturday. A first-half goal from top scorer Kris Doolan was enough to see off Stephen Robinson’s side and ensured Thistle will feature in the top half of the table after the split for the first time ever.

It also guarantees the Firhill side will achieve their best final league position since 1981 but Barton doesn’t think they should be settling for what they have. Instead, the Irishman says Alan Archibald’s men are already looking at trying to see if they can reel in Hearts in fifth place.

He said: “We celebrated at the weekend for finishing in the top six but that’s now done. Our aim now is to go for fifth place and to keep moving forward. We’re not going to stop there. The lads know that. The gaffer has told us we have to be ready to go again.

“Even when we were celebrating in the changing room on Saturday we were looking at Hearts, asking how they got on and whether we could go on to catch them next. That’s our goal. Getting top six is a great achievement for the club as they have never done it before but that we want more also shows the ambition of the club and all the staff, the kitman and the physios and the rest. We don’t want to just stop now having got sixth place. We want to keep going and make it even better.”

Thistle were bottom of the Premiership table just before Christmas but have been in stunning form in the second half of the season. They are now undefeated in their last eight matches.

Barton added: “The manager reminded us after the game on Saturday that we had been bottom of the league in December and now we’re comfortable in the top six. But even at the start of the season we knew we weren’t a team that should be bottom. We didn’t feel like a bottom half team.

“We were putting in performances - like in the Rangers game - that we could have won but things weren’t just happening for us. But it feels like we had all our bad luck in the first half of the season. This week Tam [Cerny] saves the penalty at Celtic and then pulls off a brilliant save against Motherwell. Things are going well for us now. We knew things were going to turn and thankfully it’s happened.”

Thistle surprised Celtic by taking a point at Parkhead last week and now Barton hopes they can complete the double by getting a result against Rangers this Saturday.

“To go to Ibrox and get a result would be brilliant. It felt brilliant last week at Celtic to get a draw given how good a team they are. They dominated that game as we knew they would but to come away with a point was brilliant. Hopefully we can do the same against Rangers. I think we’re more than capable of doing that. It’s a big feeling going into the Rangers game. We’re kind of under no pressure now.”

Archibald remains one of Scottish football’s less-heralded managers but Barton would not be surprised if the former defender was on the wishlist of bigger clubs. He added: “We don’t really know what’s going on or heard much about interest in him but that doesn’t mean he’s not attracting attention from other clubs. But for now he’s here at the club and that’s all we can hope for and that he stays with us.”