DEFIANT Willie Kinniburgh has vowed that Partick Thistle's promotion bid is far from over.

The Jags were held to a 0-0 draw by leaders St Johnstone at Firhill on Saturday that has left Ian McCall's men six points behind the McDiarmid Park outfit with a game more played.

But with 15 games left and 45 points to play for, the Firhill centre-back says no one in the Firhill dressing room believes promotion is dead and buried.

Kinniburgh said: "There are 15 games to go and we are giving up nothing.

"What will be required is that we find a higher level of consistency if we want to catch St Johnstone, but there is still a long way to go.

"We have to go to Queen of the South on Saturday and make sure we take three points because we obviously don't have too great a margin for error.

"But if we can nick points on the road and try as get as close to maximum points as possible at Firhill then we will not be far away and the league is certainly not beyond us."

Kinniburgh added: "But in terms of the overall result against St Johnstone you would have to say that with the chances we had it was two points dropped."

The former Motherwell man returned to the Thistle starting line-up for the first time this year after having been dropped for the Homecoming Scottish Cup fourth round tie at Inverness the previous weekend.

But with injuries to John Robertson and Ian Maxwell depleting Jags central defence Kinniburgh was recalled and responded with arguably his best performance in a Thistle shirt.

Now the 24-year-old is determined to make the most of his opportunity and book an extended run in the first team.

Kinniburgh said: "On a personal note, I was pleased with my efforts as I have been out of the side and then to come back in against the league leaders and help the boys get a clean sheet was pleasing.

"Now I just have to hope I have done enough to stay in the side for the trip to Queens.

"The target for me has got to be to get a run in the side and improve the consistency of my performance levels.

"But the competition for a place at centre-back is red hot and with guys like Ian and John being so consistent, it has been hard for me to dislodge them.

"Now they are out injured I have a chance though and it is up to me to make the most of that."

But while Thistle may have been left frustrated at their inability to cash in on some gilt-edged chances the rock-like backline performance that saw Jags No.1 Jonny Tuffey restricted to one superb early tip-over and the recording of a clean sheet satisfied Kinniburgh.

And he said: "I thought at the back we did well collectively against St Johnstone.

"To keep a clean sheet against them and really restrict them to very little in the way of clear cut chances was good "It is frustrating as we had the better chances to get the win and we didn't take them and that would have been an important three points for us if we had got them.

"But St Johnstone will be happy to have left Firhill with the gap still at six points and them having a game in hand on us."

Meanwhile, Jags are reported to want Hamilton strikes Lucas Akins on loan for the rest of the season.