JAMES PENRICE believes that his Partick Thistle team-mates can hold their heads high after their 2-1 defeat to Celtic on Saturday.

The left-back put in an assured performance against the cup holders and while he admits that Thistle could have offered a little more in attack - and needed to take their chances to get anything from the game - there were positives to be taken for the Firhill side.

"I thought we could have got at them a wee bit more," he said. "Obviously, they are who they are and with the position we’re in, I think we did well for periods of the game. We could have prevented the first goal but we've done alright.

"You need to take your chances when you play these types of teams. Anything you get you need to put away and that’s how you get results. Even teams in the Premiership that play against Celtic, they need to take every chance they get.

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"We could have probably had one in the first half [when Kenny Miller struck the post]. It’s a massive chance and it could have been a different game if we got that but it wasn’t to be."

Penrice could have given away a penalty after Jeremie Frimpong went down in the box in the first period, but the Thistle Weir Youth Academy graduate insisted that referee Alan Muir was right not to point to the spot.

"I didn’t feel I touched [Frimpong] enough for him to go down," he added. "I think that’s why it hasn’t been given.

"He ran up beside me and said, ‘How is that not a penalty?’ and I said I never touched him. You get some and you don’t get some, but I don’t think I touched him."