ALAN Archibald, the Partick Thistle manager, last week admitted to having had a change of heart about the Betfred Cup stating he was no longer a fan of this revamped competition.

He is still not that keen even after such a convincing win, having lost Abdul Osman for a game through suspension, but this was a fine afternoon’s work for his team and he was a happy man.

The Thistle squad lost some good men over the summer but they remain a fine team and, with a few hopefully on their way, another top six finish is a realistic aim.

If yesterday’s performance turns out to be typical of how they are going to play this season, and this is taking into account that St Mirren were awful, then their supporters will be entertained.

“It was a good performance,” said Archibald. “You could see the difference having Abdul and Callum Booth in the side had on us. It made for a lot of good play.

“The pitch played really well and with some rain before the game it meant we had to be on our game. We wanted to pass the ball and dominate from the back. Abdul allowed us to do that because the full-backs could get forward.

“Some days it clicks and others it doesn’t. I thought the front players were excellent, some of the one and two touch play was exquisite at times. I was delighted with that.”

Blair Spittal made his home debut and scored twice during a lovely individual performance.

“Blair has found his position now and we need to get the best from him,” said Archibald. “We haven’t had a danger from set-plays for a few seasons and he’s linked up well already. It looks like he’s been here for years.”

This was a walk in the park for the Maryhill men. They played the ball along the ground, never stopped attacking and there was something to enjoy about all give goals.

Kris Doolan is becoming a real Thistle icon. He scored his 100th goal for the club last season and he was at it again on 12 minutes. Spittal headed the ball into the striker’s path and with a great coolness Doolan guided the ball into the bottom corner.

It should have been 2-0 10 minutes later when Chris Erskine benefited from some awful St Mirren defending, got through on Ross Stewart but sent his shot straight to the goalkeeper.

No matter. Before St Mirren knew it, little Stevie Lawless got into their box and behind the defence, and he drilled an unstoppable shot past Stewart.

The third goal, which came on 33 minutes, could only be described as a belter. Good passing, clever movement and nice first touches all round saw the ball moved about the pitch with St Mirren having little chance to do anything about it. Left-back Booth spotted that Lawless was free on the edge of the box, the ball went to the midfielder and his splendid effort flew into the net.

The fourth was equally impressive. From a free-kick more than 20 yards from goal, Spittal stood over the ball, took a few seconds to think about what he was going to do and then sent a curling shot over the wall and past poor Stewart.

The game as a contest was over long before the break and the first 15 minutes of the second half were little more than a training exercise until Thistle captain Abdul Osman, already on a booking, was late on St Mirren’s Stephen McGinn which gave referee Stephen Finnie the simple decision to reach for his red.

But what happened next summed up St Mirren’s day. From that free-kick, Thistle launched a counter-attack, Erskine picked out the run of Spittal with a superb pass and he lashed the ball home.

St Mirren did create one chance late on when Ian McShane was denied by a quite brilliant save from Tomas Cerny.

With seconds to go, after Thistle had bamboozled St Mirren for the umpteenth time with their passing, substitute Kevin Nisbet should have scored a sixth but put his shot into Stewart rather than past him.

St Mirren’s Betfred Cup won’t progress beyond the group stage. The Paisley men have other things on their mind for the forthcoming campaign.

“The responsibility for victories and defeats is always upon a manager and we were desperately poor,” said an ashen-faced Jack Ross, the St Mirren manager.

“The players have been told that, they should be aware of it, and we have two weeks to rectify it before our league campaign begins. That’s not to deflect away from the defeat but we have two weeks of hard work ahead of us.

“We lacked doing the fundamentals of winning a football match. You’ve got to be competitive and have a commitment about you. We didn’t have that.

"When you have a combination of a Premiership team playing well and a Championship side playing poorly, then this is what happens.”

Scorers

Partick Thistle: Doolan 12, Lawless 23, 33, Spittal 38, 59

St Mirren: None