ALAN Archibald has vowed to shoulder the flak as he looks to shield his Partick Thistle side from the pressure generated by their troubling start to the season.

Rooted to the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table without a win from nine games, the Jags manager knows his team are already attracting worried glances from supporters.

The Maryhill faithful were not slow to voice their anger after last week’s defeat to fellow strugglers Kilmarnock as they booed their team off at the final whistle.

Archibald has also come under fire from fans but he is more concerned about that criticism sending some of his players into their shells.

So now he says he will do his best to take the strain himself.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s crucial clash with Dundee at the Energy Check Stadium, he said: “I’m not worried. Football is like this. It’s that kind of job when you become a manager that you never know what’s around the corner.

“The longer you go on these kind of runs then the pressure will always get bigger and there will be more media scrutiny.

“It’s just important that we keep that away from the players. We don’t want that feeding into them and making it harder to get a performance from them.

“Of course we’re working hard trying to change how things have gone but we can’t press the panic button and allow it to affect the players.

“If the pressure has to be on us, then fine – just so long as it’s not on the players.”

But Archibald does admit some Thistle players need to do more to find their inner confidence.

“Both myself and the experienced boys need to try and pick the lads up,” he said.

“They still need to look forward to coming to their work. I know it’s hard when you’ve not won a game and then put in a bad performance like we did last week.

“But you need to come in and be ready to battle. We need to make sure we as a staff fill them with that confidence so that the boys can go out and play.”