Kris Doolan believes Partick Thistle have Premiership credentials

Kris Doolan believes Partick Thistle have all the ingredients of a cinch Premiership team as they stand on the brink of a return to the top flight.

The Jags will take a 2-0 lead from the first leg of their play-off final against Ross County to Dingwall for the return game on Sunday.

Doolan, who stepped up from the club’s academy to take over from Ian McCall in February – initially as interim boss – has total belief in his squad, the first team to finish fourth in the second tier to go all the way to the play-off final.

Former Thistle striker Doolan, who lost a play-off final against Livingston in 2018, said: “Ian McCall built this squad and he deserves a lot of credit for that because it is a fantastic squad.

“To me it is a Premiership squad and we have managed to find a shape and a style of play that suits us.

“We play to our strengths but ultimately there are guys in there who have played hundreds of games at Premiership level.

“It is not as if we are a young side who are wet behind the ears, we don’t understand what the games are all about. They know how to get through games.

“You look in their eyes, they are desperate to be in the Premiership.

“They have a one-track mind and that is what we have tried to instil. We have tried to instil a winning mentality, a winning environment and winning breeds winning.

“I say that all the time but it becomes a habit and it is a habit that is hard to break but likewise if you are losing games, it is a hard habit to break that as well.

“I have been on the flip side of it coming out the Premiership, I know what it is like in these play-off games, when there is so much at stake it is difficult to stop a team with momentum coming into the last game especially, even though you might be at home. It is still a difficult thing to stop.

“We have had five games under real pressure in the play-offs but the players play as if there is no pressure. We have nothing to lose. We have everything to gain.

“Ross County are the team who could potentially come out of the Premiership. But for us, we will go up there with the mentality to win and hopefully get the job done.”