 St Johnstone will move into fourth place in the Scottish Premiership if they beat Partick Thistle when the pair meet tonight, but midfielder Murray Davidson is still a while away from analysing the table. The Perth side are level on points with Hearts following the 3-0 win over Hamilton on Saturday, where the midfielder scored the third with a header. An away win at Firhill would also go a long way to help clinching a top-six spot - Saints would go 11 clear of their sixth-placed hosts - but Davidson is not too concerned about league positions at the moment.He said: "I don't look at the table at this stage of the season. Everyone is different. I think certain players do, but I have never looked at the table. You see it here and there and you are aware of where you are but it is something I have never done. The last four or five seasons, because we have been successful and once we have our place in the top-six cemented, that is when I have a proper look and you can maybe start targeting where you can finish. I am just trying to get into the top six as fast as possible. Hopefully we can do that and once we do that I will maybe start looking around us. Yes, 11 points at this stage is a big gap but Partick will be looking to bring it down to five. They have done quite well against us recently but we went down there earlier in the season and won 2-0 and played very well. We know if we do play well we are more than capable of getting a result." Adam Barton feels vindicated in his decision to move to Thistle as he believes their style of play has brought out the best in him. Barton moved from Portsmouth in August and quickly became a hit with the Thistle fans and others, winning the Scottish Premiership player of the month award in October. And the skilful former Preston and Coventry player, who can line up in defence or midfield, feels that is down to Thistle's commitment to passing football. Barton said: "That was a key factor why I came to Partick. A player like me, I like to get on the ball and I like teams that play. If I didn't do that then I would probably be useless in a team, to be quite honest with you. My agent and I discussed it and it was the right decision in the end, the way we play. There are probably three or four teams in (English) League Two that play. A lot of teams may say they want to play but they don't. If I can get to a team that likes to play like Partick do then it suits me and it hopefully brings the best out in me. And it has shown in recent weeks and months, hopefully my performances have been okay and that's down to the way the team wants to play." Thistle went from bottom of the table to the top six in recent weeks but Barton feels there is still room for improvement following four consecutive clean sheets. He said: "We have gone a number of games now where we have kept clean sheets. At the start of the season that was the one thing we really pushed for. And now we have got that we just need to try and put these chances away. It's happened all season, we are creating chances but in certain games we don't take them." |
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