Kyle Turner revealed Kris Doolan targeted cinch Premiership football immediately upon becoming Partick Thistle boss as the Jags stand on the brink of a return to the top flight.

Doolan stepped up from his role as under-18 coach in February to take over, initially on a temporary basis, from Ian McCall and the turnaround in form since has taken the Maryhill side all the way to the play-off final.

The Jags are 2-0 up from Thursday’s first leg against Ross County – the victory extending their unbeaten run to 11 games – with the return game taking place in Dingwall on Sunday.

Thistle are the first team to finish fourth in the second tier to go all the way to the play-off final – during that run Doolan had to cope with the death of his father Lawrence – and they are looking to make more history by completing the job against the Staggies.

Malky Mackay’s side played most of the game in Glasgow with 10 men after 16-year-old defender Dylan Smith was sent off in the first half for denying Aidan Fitzpatrick an obvious goalscoring opportunity and midfielder Turner is hoping Doolan’s ambition is soon fulfilled.

The 25-year-old said: “The gaffer has been brilliant. He has had a hard time in the last few weeks and it has been tough for him.

“But when he came those were his first words, ‘let’s try to get to the Premiership’.

“He constantly goes on about it in the changing room, that we want to be looking up the way and how we want to get there.

“It is the top league in Scotland and he instilled a belief in us that we can do this and so far so good.

“Since the gaffer has come in we have a siege mentality and we keep going to see what happens.

“In five play-off games we have scored 18 goals and conceded three, so the gaffer has installed a belief in us. He wants us to be free and go and play our own game and it has worked so far.

“We were disappointed this season and we should have been challenging in the final games but we slipped up a few times and we weren’t happy with that.

“We finished fourth and we had to play six games in the play-offs. We felt the worst we should have finished was second.

“When we got past Queen’s Park, then the belief started to grow. We know Sunday will be tough and County will throw everything at us so we have to be ready.”

Turner believes the margin of victory over the Staggies, who finished 11th in the Premiership, could have been greater.

The former Stranraer and Dunfermline player said: “I thought we put on a good performance. We were actually disappointed we didn’t score more goals to be honest.

“We had a lot of chances in the second half but County defended well and they threw bodies in front of the ball to make it hard for us.

“If someone had said to us we would win 2-0 then we would have been happy.

“But the way the game went with them down to 10 men, with the chances we created, on another day we would have scored more. But overall though we are delighted with the win.”

Kris Doolan insists Partick Thistle will go for goals again in their cinch Premiership play-off final second leg after their 2-0 win over 10-man Ross County at Firhill.

Jags winger Aidan Fitzpatrick opened the scoring in the ninth minute before 16-year-old Staggies defender Dylan Smith was sent off by referee David Munro eight minutes later for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, after the official upgraded a yellow card to red following the intervention of the VAR Andrew Dallas.

Striker Brian Graham volleyed in a second for the Championship outfit just before the break to give them the advantage for the return game in Dingwall.

Boss Doolan said: “It was a brilliant win for us – but it could have been more.

“If you’d offered us 2-0 before the game, we would obviously have taken your hand off. But it could have been more. To me, it maybe should have been more.

“Part of that is down to Ross County defending well and throwing their bodies on the line.

“Their goalie also made a good save at the end to tip one on to the bar. If we had managed to get a third, it might well have been a different game.

“But we know it’s not over. There’s still another game to be played on Sunday. We only have one way of playing – and we will go out and look to do the same in Dingwall.

“We know that if we can go there and win the game, we will be back in the Premiership.”

Staggies boss Malky Mackay was happy to leave Glasgow only two goals down and retains belief for the second leg.

He said: “We started fairly brightly and created a couple of half chances.

“But we lost a bad goal. It was a great strike from Fitzpatrick but poor defending from our lads that were out facing it.

“I thought we were doing okay at that point but then we lost young Dylan.

“He’s a great kid and has been terrific in his first season as a pro but in retrospect he’s nicked the boy and it was a sending off.

“That obviously gives us a mountain to climb.

“We then lose the goal just before half-time and when I got the boys back inside, I said to them the challenge was to make sure we come out here no worse than two-down.

“I didn’t want us to sink in to our own penalty box as that would have just been carnage. So to see us threaten them a few times was what I needed.

“Second half I was really proud of them and at only two-down, there is plenty to play for on Sunday.”

Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan has welcomed the return of Stuart Bannigan to add even more experience to his confident side ahead of their play-off final against Ross County.

The 30-year-old midfielder suffered a calf strain in the first half of Thistle’s quarter-final first-leg win over Queen’s Park, while Cammy Smith is also set to return after missing the semi-final games against Ayr with a groin issue.

The Jags have scored 16 goals in the cinch Premiership play-offs so far and Doolan has backed his players to handle the occasion ahead of Thursday’s first leg at Firhill.

“Stuart is back training now which is brilliant,” he said. “A guy like Stuart Bannigan coming back in lifts a team even more, as if they needed anything else to lift them. Even just to see him in training again… the boys got a wee spring in their step.

“He is such a big player for us and it’s great to see him back there leading within a group. I see a lot of leaders in the team and Stuart is one of them.

“You need that type of experience at this stage and it rubs off on the younger ones. They learn how to carry themselves, not to get carried away, not to get flustered and to enjoy it, embrace it.

“The play-off games are notoriously frantic and you have to understand how to handle that, but we have a lot of seasoned professionals, guys who have been through these type of games before, have played in the Premiership and top end of the Championship.

“We have good players who can handle the pressure. That’s shown in the four games we have had, we have not only scraped through the games, we have come flying through the games.”

Thistle have had a week to prepare for both legs against Ayr and will go into Thursday’s game with two more days of rest than County.

“I feel as if we are in the best shape we can be in,” Doolan said. “I think the boys have learned a lot about dealing with the play-offs, we have had four games under that pressure and scored 16 goals.

“To handle that type of pressure in the play-offs is a big feather in the cap of those players because I have been in the flipside of it. I have been in the Premiership side coming into the play-offs off the back of a season where you are used to losing games, and it becomes really difficult to turn a team round who have such good momentum.

“The four games we have had have been a great learning curve but also made us get stronger.

“If you are winning games, you don’t feel tired, you don’t feel sluggish. Our boys are desperate to play and they are full of energy.

“The confidence we have, we don’t come into these games fearful. We will be understanding of how difficult it is, we will give respect to Ross County because they are the Premiership side, but we play to win in every game and I see that mentality day in, day out.”

Partick Thistle have announced the death of manager Kris Doolan’s father.

The Maryhill club confirmed that Lawrence Doolan died on Thursday morning.

The news comes the day before the Jags face Queen’s Park in the second leg of their Premiership play-off quarter-final.

Doolan’s side beat the Spiders 4-3 in the first leg on Tuesday night at Firhill.

A statement on the club’s website read: “All at Partick Thistle FC are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Lawrence Doolan, the father of first-team manager Kris Doolan, this morning.

“We know every Partick Thistle supporter and all connected with the club will join us in sending their love, thoughts and condolences to Kris and his family at this difficult time.”