Dundee boss Paul Hartley admits he has been frustrated by the stop-start nature of his side’s season so far.
The Dark Blues currently sit in seventh place in the Premiership table, with 17 points to their name from the opening 13 games.
The manager is now demanding that his players show a greater level of consistency and go on a sustained run to take them back into the top six.
Hartley said: “It’s definitely been frustrating.
“When you look at our two games against Hamilton and Inverness recently, we’ve been a goal up in both of those and they’ve been down to 10 men as well.
“We should have more points but hopefully we can get a good result on Saturday to keep us in there.
“If I look at it, we’re not far away from the top six.
“We’ve not lost a lot of games but like most of the teams it’s a consistency thing and going on a run of games which is what we’re striving for.
“We’ve drawn five, won four and lost four so it’s been a little bit stop-start.
“But if we can get that run of winning games that’s the key thing.”
Hartley will be hoping tomorrow’s game against Partick Thistle will be the one to get that run rolling, especially as influential club captain Kevin Thomson could return after recovering from a knee injury.
The manager added: “Thommo is fine. He’s trained all week.
“James McPake will probably be another 10 days after tweaking his groin in training last Thursday.
“We got him a scan so they reckon 10 days to two weeks out.
“Julen (Etxabeguren) is still out.
“But he’s been back running the last day or two and the scan came back fine.
“It was slight ligament damage in his ankle, although it’s eased off now.
“We’re looking at probably the Hearts game for him after the international break, or maybe St Johnstone the following week.
“We’ll just wait and see how he is.”
Dundee will face a Thistle side sitting second bottom of the table having lost their previous game 4-0 at home to Hearts.
The Dark Blues have already beaten the Jags this season but Hartley has warned they have improved since that first meeting in Glasgow in September.
He added: “Watching the Hearts game last week, they played well in the first-half.
“They’ve shown a good improvement since the last time we played them.
“We’ve looked at footage of most of their games and they definitely like to pass the ball.
“They’ve had some decent results recently apart from last Saturday (4-0 loss to Hearts) but they were right in the game until half-time.
“So we expect a tough game.
“They’ve got good attacking options and create a lot of chances.
“But we want to try and get a good result before the break.
“That’s important for us because you’ve got two weeks to look at things and hopefully we can climb back into the top six.”