Largs Thistle boss Sandy MacLean has said that his side will have to be put in a much improved performance if they are to take anything from Irvine Meadow this Saturday.

While delighted to get maximum points, the Largs gaffer believed the display against Arthurlie was one of the poorest displays from his side in a long time, and is hoping for a better performance to keep their good run of form going.

It is a 2pm kick-off at Meadow Park which is always a good surface - in contrast to the heavy pitch at Barrhead - and manager MacLean hopes this will make a difference. Thistle are sitting in the play-off spot, but need points as other teams below have games in hand to catch Largs.

Sandy said: “Ironically, the performance against Arthurlie was the poorest we have played in the last 10 weeks. We have played very well recently but I will settle for collecting the points. Heavier pitches have caused us problems. Our players are used to playing and training on nice even and flat astro surfaces.

“We now need to look to nicking some points from the top teams. We are not expected to take anything from Irvine Meadow so there is no pressure on our players. We are on decent form and we have the momentum. We take one game at a time - but when you look back and see that you have won three on the spin, why not make it four? We are in a very similar situation to last season when I took over, and we have four games left. Nobody then gave us a chance of promotion and look what happened. You dare to dream, and this is what we are doing. We are full of confidence and self-belief going into this big match, and the pressure is off us, it is all on Irvine Meadow who are sitting in second spot in the league. We took four goals of them last season in the Ayrshire Cup; I don’t think that is going to possibly happen again but we are going into the match in fine fettle.” Largs will be boosted by the knowledge that Irvine Meadow are believed to have some injuries to key players.

Both forward James Marks and defender Alan Gilbride are nursing ankle knocks, but otherwise Thistle report a clean bill of health.

Reflecting on the Arthurlie match, Sandy said: “We were the better team in the first half and certainly deserved to go a goal in front but we lost a poor goal almost immediately, and we had to hang in there during the second half. They had a couple of crosses and Grant Weir was alert to that and made a very good save. It was a great strike from Kevin Struthers to put us 2-1 up - it was a battling win.”