Partick Thistle left-back Callum Booth is hoping to put his woeful record against Hearts to bed when he takes them on at Firhill this afternoon.

The former Hibernian man, who grew up supporting the Easter Road club, failed to win any of the four Edinburgh derbies he played in - losing two and drawing two.

He admits that matches against Hearts still carry an extra edge for him, and given his past, he is expecting some special attention from the potentially sizeable visiting support this afternoon.

It could be worse though, as he joked when asked if he expects to receive stick from the maroon hordes: "Not as much as Leigh Griffiths!

"All ex-Hibees get it from the Hearts fans and ex-Hearts players get the same when they go to Easter Road.

"It’s fine. It gives you a wee extra edge but you do try and treat it like every other game when you are a professional footballer.

"It will be a hard game and I will need to focus on that.

"I was a Hibs fan and I want them to do well.

"My derby record was not great. I played four derbies and drew two and lost two. Ryan Stevenson likes to remind me of that quite a lot.

"Winning against Hearts on Saturday for Partick Thistle would go some way to making amends for my poor Edinburgh derby record.

"I would love to win and that doesn't matter if it is against Hearts or anybody for that matter - we want to keep that run going.”

Booth believes that Partick Thistle have turned the corner after a poor start to the campaign, and after nailing down the left-back slot in Alan Archibald’s side, he insists that his focus is now solely on the Firhill club and repaying the faith shown in him by his manager.

"It has been great to play every game this season and I am enjoying my football again,” he said.

"It makes a difference when you are wanted somewhere. It makes you play better and you have more confidence out on the pitch.

"Earlier in the season we were playing well but not getting any luck and we were on a terrible run.

"Seven out of nine is a decent return and gives us momentum going into the Hearts game.

"It could have been nine out of nine but being 1-0 up at home against 10 men then you are expected to see it out and we were disappointed how we played the full game.

"We are still unbeaten in three games though.

"We have closed the gap a little bit as there are a few teams now only a couple of points in front of us.

"There has been no major difference in the way that we have played recently.

"Overall we have played not too badly with the exception of a couple of games where we have not turned up.

"We have deserved a bit of luck in order to turn the corner and string a few results together.

"The Hearts game at Tynecastle was one of the games that we failed to show up in and we were really poor and they were on a good run at that point.

"That is something that we want to put right in order to show people that we are a good team.

"We have got a lot of hard work to do to get away from the relegation zone so a win this weekend against Hearts would be massive for us.”