Thistle boss Stuart Davidson praised his side's determination to come through a testing second half at Larkhall to gain maximum points, and hopes it can be a yardstick for the rest of the season.

Largs midfielder Graham Muir was very much the embodiment of the club's battling spirit as he scored the only goal in a physical encounter, having to receive treatment from club physio Valentina Mazzoni for a head injury, but bravely carried on with a bandage.

Stuart said: " An elbow caught Graham and cut his ear, and he got the bandage from our physio Valentino Mazzoni. Muiry didn't start last week against Troon, but showed the right attitude, and scored the early goal, and had a good game. It was a very important three points for us after the setback against Troon. If you want to be successful in this league, you have to win your home games, so we can't let that happen again."

Largs face Shettleston this Saturday at Barrfields Park, 2pm kick-off, as the club aim to get back-to-back victories for the first time in the McBookie.com West 1st Division this season.

Muir is fit to play, and Largs only have two injuries, Ryan McKie who is a long term injury and awaiting a knee scan, and keeper Sean Graham who had a thigh problem.

Stuart said: "We have now played four games in this league, and there are no mugs. If a team has a bad first half, they will come at you in the second half. It is very competitive, and we have a great group of players who are up for the battle."

Looking back at last weekend's encounter, Stuart said: "We started on the front foot, and winning second balls, and had a right good grip of the game. We created a lot of chances, and should have put the game to bed by half-time.

"We hung on in the end, but I felt we earned out luck after the work we put into the game. There were a couple of decisions which went against us, but we managed to deal with it, and I think we fully deserved the win at the end. I felt we really couldn't ask any more of the guys.

"Barring the Troon result, where we had a man wrongly sent off, we have made a good start to the season. A few things went against us in the Troon game, and I don't think the scoreline accurately reflected the balance of the game, as we could have got a result, despite not playing at our best. If you take that away, we have made a decent start to the league. A few things went against us too in that second half against Larkhall but we persisted and got the win.

"And there is now great competition in the team. Ross Lundy came back into the team and has made some very important saves for us, young Matthew Ashe came back on Saturday and worked very hard and played well. And Laurie McMaster bounced back from a poor performance by his standards against Troon to perform well against Larkhall. There is healthy competition in the squad which is good as it will keep everyone on their toes."