Partick Thistle collapsed during the final five minutes of their league match on Saturday.

They intend to use all of a League Cup meeting with Morton tonight to build themselves back up again.

It is just three days since Conrad Balatoni experienced a painful loss at home against Hamilton Academical, not enough for his muscles to have recovered fully from the game. Yet the greatest damage is more subtle, less obvious; a slight grimace which is brought on by any mention of that defeat at the weekend. He is a defender for Thistle, a player close at hand when Tony Andreu and Jason Scotland scored in the dying minutes.

Balatoni will be among the squad which alights at Cappielow tonight but his warning is likely to have reached his SPFL League 1 opponents already. "We've just got to put Saturday's performance behind us and focus on putting in a performance in the cup," said the Thistle defender.

"The best way to bounce back from a result and performance like that is to come out fighting and get a good win under your belt.

"The good thing about football is there's always a game to go and rectify your mistakes when something has gone wrong. But if we're not at our best it's the sort of match where we could come undone. We know that Morton will be up for it and we just need to make sure we give them the respect they deserve.

"We know what to expect, they're still a strong team and they've got confidence on their side just now. They're probably going to be pushing for the league this year so we need to take them seriously. It would be great for everybody around the club if we can progress and get further. All that starts on Tuesday night."

Morton will do their best to make sure it all ends there for the Glasgow side too. The two clubs last met in the league, when they were both were pushing for promotion to the top flight. That Morton faltered and have since slipped backed into the third tier might be exacerbated by the sight of Thistle tonight, a team in the top flight and with the means to bring in players capable of ensuring that they stay there for a third successive season at least.

The strength of the Thistle squad was acknowledged last night by Jim Duffy, the Morton manager and a man who has appreciated the work undertaken by Thistle this season. "I have watched Thistle a couple of times this season and they have been terrific," said Duffy, whose side are expected to be without both Jamie McCluskey and Andrew Barrowman tonight due to injuries.

"They have impressed me and I do not think Saturday's result will have knocked them out of their stride. We got a boost with that late goal at Peterhead but we will still need to play extremely well to do anything in this game."