Partick Thistle vs Ross County Prediction: Ross County to avoid relegation

The first leg of the Scottish Premiership relegation playoff final is on Thursday night, and Ross County will travel to Firhill Stadium to take on Partick Thistle. The home team is looking for a return to the top level after five seasons, while the away team is shooting for a fourth straight season in the Premier League.

Partick Thistle advanced to the Premiership final after beating Queen's Park and Ayr United. They had finished fourth in the regular Championship season, however. Kris Doolan's squad has had a lot of success in front of goal during the playoffs, having beaten Queen's Park 8-3 on aggregate in the quarterfinals and Ayr 8-0 on aggregate in the semis. This is the largest two-leg winning margin in any SPFL playoff across all four divisions since 2006. Last Friday, Partick defeated 10-man Ayr 5-0 away from home in the second leg to set up a two-legged clash with Ross County. Scott Tiffoney, Jack McMillan, Steven Lawless, and Kevin Holt all scored for Partick Thistle in that matchup. The Jags are feeling confident heading into Thursday's match after winning their last three games by a combined score of 12-0. This is an improvement over their performance last season, in which they lost in the playoff quarterfinals to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Partick have won their previous seven home games in a row, and in their most recent matchup with Ross County in the League Cup quarterfinals in September of 2019, they prevailed with a 3-2 extra-time victory against the Staggies.

Ross County, who only a year ago were celebrating a top-six finish in the Premiership, finished the regular 2022–23 season in 11th position and entered the relegation playoffs to try to stay in the top flight. The Staggies lost all three of their last games, most recently 3-1 on the road at Kilmarnock last Saturday, but were spared immediate relegation to the second division after cellar club Dundee United lost 3-2 to Motherwell. Malky Mackay is fine with his Ross County team being labeled as underdogs once again for their two-legged matchup against high-flying Partick this season in the Premiership. The team from Dingwall hasn't had much to cheer about on the road this season, as they've only won four of their 19 league games away from home and kept four clean sheets. Ross County, on the other hand, has won on each of its last two league visits to Firhill Stadium, most recently in February 2019 with a 4-2 Championship victory.

Partick Thistle possible starting lineup:

Mitchell; McMillan, Muirhead, Brownlie, Holt; Bannigan, Docherty; Lawless, Tiffoney, Fitzpatrick; Graham

Ross County possible starting lineup:

Laidlaw; Watson, Baldwin, Iacovitti; Randall, Kenneh, Tillson, Harmon; Dhanda; Samuel, White

Considering how the past games in this round of the playoffs have concluded, we should expect a high-goal scoring game. Despite Partick Thistle's previous high quality of play, the home team, Ross County, is the underdog in the match and is expected to perform better than expected. There is also the possibility of reaching a tie in this scenario.