ELLIOTT’S TARGET IS IN SIGHT
CHRISTIE ELLIOTT says a Premiership top-six finish with Partick Thistle would be his best career achievement to date.
In fact he insists a top-half placing would eclipse winning the Championship with the Jags back in 2012-13.
The 25-year-old Englishman revealed the Firhill club’s ambition is to gatecrash the Premiership top six – and they are just one win from achieving their aim.
A home win over Motherwell today would see Alan Archibald’s men cement their top-half status.
Elliott said: “Finishing up there would be better than winning the Championship title.
“We’ve had the ambition of wanting to be a Premiership club since I came here so it was good to achieve that.
“This season has felt like the biggest of my career and hopefully we can cap it off by getting into the top six.
“If you look at the clubs up there they are bigger than us but our facilities have improved each year I’ve been here.
“We’ve established ourselves in the top flight and now it’s in our hands to finish in the elite group – it’s so close I hope we do make it.”
Thistle are on a seven-match unbeaten Premiership run and became only the third Scottish side this season to take points from Celtic in the 1-1 draw at Parkhead in midweek.
However, Elliott feels sixth spot should not be the extent of their ambitions with fifth also up for grabs as Hearts are just three points ahead.
He said: “We’ve just got to take it each game as it comes, we’ll be playing teams round about us and hopefully if we do get the results we want then we can push on higher.
“All the lads are buzzing after Wednesday. With the run we’ve been on we’re relishing every game. We were confident going into the Celtic game and sure we could do well.
“We know it’s a hard place to go and in the first half we struggled a bit but managed to stay in the game. The second half was much better and we could maybe have taken all three points.
“It would be just good to get the top-six spot nailed down. We’ve put it all on ourselves and we don’t want to be relying on other teams.
“Were going into today’s game confident because of what we’ve done prior to this one.
“It’ll be a massive achievement for the club, we’re within touching distance and hopefully we can make it.
“It’s all down to us, we need to win and then hopefully we can push on and get fifth place.”
The wing-back insists boss Archibald has been an integral part of the Jags success story and runs a happy ship.
Elliott said: “The manager has been brilliant with all the lads, he rotates the squad a lot and keeps the lads happy.
“At some clubs players get upset if they are not playing but he uses us all as much as possible.
“We’ve got a brilliant group of lads, we’ve all stuck together and push each other on.”
However, Elliott admits the Achilles heel in his game is a lack of goals.
He last netted for the Jags in a 1-0 Premiership win against St Mirren back in November 2014, 55 games ago.
And he admits scoring before the end of the campaign would cap off the perfect season.
He added: “It’s been a while. I’ve had chances where I’ve scuffed shots but a goal between now and the last game would top it all off.”
Christie Elliott was speaking as he visited the latest stop on the SPFL Trust’s Trusted Trophy Tour. For more information visit www. trustedtrophytour.co.uk.