Mark Wilson has revealed that Dan O’Reilly and Logan Chalmers are in contention to start tonight’s Premiership play-off semi-final against Livingston – but Kyle Turner is expected to miss out.

Centre-back O’Reilly missed Friday’s 2-0 win at Somerset Park due to concussion protocol after a clash of heads with Ayr United’s Nick McAllister during the first leg of the quarter-final, while Chalmers has missed the last three games after picking up an injury in the 2-1 win over Falkirk at the tail end of last month.

Wilson, who is leading the Jags on an interim basis alongside Brian Graham, says Chalmers is in contention to start against David Martindale’s side this evening at Firhill.

“Aye, I would probably say he is,” Wilson confirmed. “But we've got to be mindful of just the two-legged nature of this game. That's something we'll probably decide later on today, but he's looking sharp anyway.

“He's trained the last couple of days on this pitch, which is hard to deal with anyway, but he's got that wee bit of magic that can change a game at the drop of a hat.”

Turner picked up a knock against Ayr on Friday night and soldiered on before being brought off shortly before half time, and Wilson does not expect the midfielder to feature against Livingston whatsoever.

However, there was better news for Aidan Fitzpatrick, who played through the pain barrier at Somerset Park after picking up a sore one during the first leg, with the winger being given the all-clear to face the Lions.

“I don't think Kyle will make it, if I'm honest,” Wilson said. “He's another one that's been carrying something for a while. And then when we move things about [tactically], he plays right wing-back and he feels it as soon as he crosses the ball.

“That's the first time he went down, probably about 14 minutes in or something like that. But fair play, he played through it until 40 minutes. But it looks like that's going to be one that's going to keep him out of these two games at least.

“[Fitzpatrick] is fine. I mean, he gets some kicks as a winger. So here, last Tuesday, he took a whack and it really, really came back bruised the next day. He was touch-and-go for the game on Friday but the bruising went down a bit.

“He obviously played a huge role. And again, the bruising came back. It was pretty black and blue, but he'll be fine. He'll be okay. He's a tough boy, Fitzy.”

O’Reilly’s return may well result in 17-year-old Jamie Low dropping to the bench this evening. The left wing-back made his professional debut in the 2-0 win at Somerset Park, putting in an assured display in defence and setting up Graham’s opening goal.

Wilson, who is the Jags’ Under-18s manager, says he had no reservations about naming the teen in the starting XI – because he had already shown he could handle the likes of Rangers midfielder and Romania internationalist Ianis Hagi.

“I thought in the first few minutes that there was a couple of wee gaps there and I thought that was to be expected,” Wilson said of Low’s display against Ayr. “But comfortable, yes, in possession. Because I know what he is.

“I've worked with him for such a long time. I know his strengths. It's hard to believe that he came from a boys’ club probably just 18 months ago, two years ago. So it's not as if he's been in Thistle's system since he was seven years old, like some of our other boys.


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“He was scouted. He came in. He found it difficult to adapt, maybe in his first six months, to this kind of level of football. But his progress has been exceptional. And you can see his quality at set-pieces. That's obviously one of his strengths.

“So I wasn't surprised. I've seen him playing in the reserve team. He played earlier on this season. He's a Rangers fan. I'm sure he won't mind me saying that.

“But he played against Rangers at their training centre and Hagi when he was bombed [out the team] and he found himself playing against him. He did great. It was a dream come true for him, playing in that environment. So we knew he could handle it.

“We played a bounce game against Motherwell when Brian and I got the job.  Michael Wimmer only had maybe two games in charge, so he played his full-strength team. Jamie played a bit in that.

“So we're not just plucking him through obscurity, putting him in. We knew he could handle that level. Again, that was my message to him: no disrespect, but you've played against better players than who you were coming up against on that night. So have that confidence. And he showed a level of composure.

“Maybe the first game's always the easiest. It's the second game and the third game. You need to really be concentrated and focused. And that's the message we'll be giving him.”

Livingston will surely be the fresher of the two teams this evening at Firhill, given they have enjoyed an extra week of preparation, but Thistle enjoy another advantage: momentum.

The recent victories over Falkirk and Livingston, as well as Friday’s victory in Ayrshire, have restored the feel-good factor at Thistle, and Wilson wants his side to build on it with another victory tonight.

“You’ve got to,” Wilson said. “If this was mid-season, or even the start of the season, and you go on a run like we've went on, you've got to take those real positives. We've beaten Falkirk.

“Actually, I'll go back to drawing against Dunfermline because everybody must have thought I was mad to say that was a valuable point. I made quite a big thing about that after the game. I said it's a huge point for us. We should have won the game, but the performance was good. We knew as a group.

“Although our fans were disappointed - I could see the reaction after that game, I could see on social media what they thought after that game - I made the message abundantly clear to the players that it was a great performance. So they took a good feeling from that, and then won it against Falkirk in the 97th minute. Incredible feeling. To go again and do it at Livi was unbelievable.

“Okay, we took a step back [in the first leg against Ayr]. But after the Ayr game we wasted no time. I think within 10 seconds, I said, ‘Let's just forget about that game. It wasn't a good game to watch. We weren't good in it. But let's focus on Friday night’.

“Again, that positive energy was taken into Friday night. And again, you get another wee boost from that. So it lingers about the place. It’s a much better feeling when you're winning than if you're just ticking along and winning one, drawing one. So it's a good place to be in.”