MOTHERWELL striker Scott McDonald has warned Partick Thistle to prepare for a relegation dogfight as the battle to beat the drop hots up.

McDonald grabbed his first goal in just his second game since last month's return to Fir Park when Motherwell earned a precious 1-1 draw at home to Kilmarnock on Saturday. The point helped move the Steelmen off the bottom of the table, where just three points separate basement boys St Mirren from third-bottom Ross County.

Thistle are a further four points above County but, despite some seeming assured the Jags should be able to keep themselves away from trouble, McDonald reckons the Firhill outfit need to look over their shoulders. He said: "From our point of view, we still believe there are four teams in the relegation fight. There's 10 games to go and that's 30 points.

"Partick are six points ahead of us just now and we've still got to play them twice, and we've still got to play St Mirren below the split as well. So, it's still all to play for. There's no need (for us) to panic just yet, there are so many games still to go.

"It will be tight to the end, it will swing here and there, and obviously the team that is the most consistent will get out of it - hopefully that will be us."

Meanwhile, speaking in the wake of the controversy surrounding the penalty awarded to Aidan Connolly in Sunday's highly-charged Scottish Cup clash between Dundee United and Celtic, McDonald believes football is fighting a losing battle against diving.

Celtic skipper Scott Brown and manager Ronny Deila called on Connolly to be dealt with by the authorities for alleged simulation in winning the spot-kick that gave United a half-time lead at Tannadice.

However, McDonald believes such incidents are 'part and parcel' of the sport and may never be eradicated.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, the former Celtic marksman said: "Have I dived? I wouldn't say I've dived. I've gone over when minimal contact has been made at times, of course.

"If I was a manager I wouldn't be discouraging it.

"There's been a lot of discussion on this, saying it's a big problem. But it's part and parcel of the game, it's not going to go away.

"Unfortunately, people will say it's cheating. But it's been around for many a year and there's no way you are going to get rid of it overnight.

"Bringing up every incident over video replays is not going to change the decision that is made on the day.

"Obviously there will be retrospective punishment for it, but I don't think it's going to stop players trying to take advantage for their team."