THE occasion and the magnitude of the task ahead doesn't faze Ryan Steven- son.

If Partick Thistle are to write their name in the history books on Wednesday evening, it cannot daunt any of his team-mates, either.

Facing Celtic at Parkhead may not be the challenge it once was, even compared to a handful of seasons ago, but the significance of victory will remain the same for Alan Archibald and his players.

In their three matches with Celtic this season, Thistle have lost 10 goals without reply, six of which came on a bruising night in October as Ronny Deila's side took another step towards what would become League Cup glory.

It is 23 years since a Thistle side made the trip across Glasgow and returned to Firhill with three points, earned that October day thanks to a George Shaw double in a 2-1 win. On their last short hop over to Parkhead, they were narrowly defeated as Virgil van Dijk scored the only goal of the game. But Stevenson is hoping it will be third time lucky in the East End this week.

"You've got to try to embrace the situation and the fact you're going to Parkhead," he said. "For a lot of the boys it's their second season and you've got to enjoy these occasions. You'd rather be going there than going to Brechin.

"It's always going to be difficult playing the best team in the country but you want to be playing at the biggest stadiums in front of big crowds. Usually when we play against the better teams we play OK. Hopefully we can do it on Wednesday."

After briefly flirting with the relegation scrap at the foot of the Premiership standings, Thistle appear to have done enough to avoid a nervy end to the campaign. There will be no easing off or thoughts of a summer break until the job is done, however.

The Celtic game is something of a free shot at victory, a fixture that few will expect Archibald's side to take anything from. The determination to win is as great as ever, though.

So, what is the plan? "Hope for the best," Stevenson joked. "You know you're going to have to defend and that there will be long periods of the game where you don't have the ball.

"You need to have a good solid unit as a team. You go there and play well and hope they have an off night. St Johnstone got a result there a couple of weeks back and there's no reason why we can't."

If Thistle are to upset the odds and rewrite the record books, they will need to make a better start than they did the last time they faced their Glasgow counterparts on Premiership duty. It was the night Celtic, and Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong in particular, started as they meant to go on.

The clock hadn't even ticked over to one minute before Mackay-Steven gave the visitors the lead at Firhill, and just half-an-hour had gone when his fellow new arrival struck a sweet shot to put Deila's side out of reach.

While Thistle are edging closer to retaining their Premiership status, Celtic are making steps towards retaining the Premiership title and Stevenson has been impressed with how the champions have gone about their business.

"They're the best team in the country by a good stretch, but Aberdeen are running them close," he said. "I think at the start it took them a wee while to get used to the new manager and the beliefs he's brought in. You can see now that they're firing on all cylinders and top of the league. They're impressive and have players who can hurt you. It will be tough."