Disregard the winning of trophies and there can be no more deliciously infuriating team for those of true sporting inclination to follow than Partick Thistle.

From their opening match of the season to this latest one their coupon shredding antics have been a feature:

�¢ Final SPFL Premiership weekend last season Partick Thistle 2 Ross County 3, first game of this on August 9: Partick 4 Ross County 0

�¢ No more league wins in the opening month of the season until the then unbeaten league leaders visited Firhill on September 13: Partick 3 Inverness 1

�¢ Best run of the season with just one league defeat in accruing eight points between October 4 and November 8, but smack bang in among that a League Cup quarter-final on October 29: Celtic 6 Partick 0

�¢ Inverness unbeaten at home, having scored 18 goals and conceded just four until December 13: Inverness 0 Partick 4

�¢ Hamilton Accies flying high in the Premiership having registered five in a derby win to start the year while Thistle had not won in more than a month between that trip to the Highlands and January 21: Partick 5 Hamilton 0

�¢ Ross County, 13 away matches this season without a win until February 21 at Firhill: Partick 1 Ross County 3

�¢ And now, Partick with five defeats in their previous six matches against St Johnstone who had lost just one of their previous six and shocked the leaders at Celtic Park last time out: Partick 3 St Johnstone 0

Some stellar performances therein, yet had Motherwell held onto the lead they held at Pittodrie the previous evening Thistle would have been just three points away from the drop zone, the simple reason being their remarkable inability to follow one winning performance with another.

That has led to an acceptance that for all the obvious talent in their ranks, they were where they deserved to be until this comprehensive victory over a team that had conceded just 27 goals in 28 league matches before this one took them nine points clear of second bottom Motherwell and surely now set to draw clear.

"It baffles me why we have not won consecutive games," admits Conrad Balatoni, scorer of the headed goal which put them two ahead after just nine minutes on Saturday, top scorer Kris Doolan having opened their account just three minutes after starting his first match since January.

"I don't think there is any question we have one of the better squads in the league. People may disagree with me, but that's what I believe and it is just frustrating not having back-to-backs wins or consistency."

Naturally there has been some straight-talking in the dressing room as a result.

"The team had a good talk as one after the Ross County game a few weeks ago and some harsh words were spoken," said Balatoni.

"I'm sure it stood us in good stead because we've won two from three games since. We've beaten Dundee United and St Johnstone, teams that people don't think we should be beating, but we've shown we are one of the better teams and we want to be creeping up the table.

"No disrespect to Hamiton and Dundee, we feel we have got just as good a squad as them if not better but, at the end of the day, they have put together consistent runs of form and we haven't.

"That's football and the table does not lie. It's because of that and not taking our chances when we had them."

And, as he also noted, converting the wrong ones...

"We drew with Dundee in one game when I scored a last-minute own goal and that summed it up as that would have been consecutive wins, but we'll keep fighting and we'll do everything against Inverness next week to put it right."

Tommy Wright cut a deeply frustrated figure as he tried to make sense of what he had watched and he felt they should have been awarded a penalty at a key stage, but Stuart Bannigan's glorious 65th minute strike confirmed a victory that St Johnstone's manager was forced to concede the home team had deserved, setting them up for another crack at their Holy Grail when the Highland Jags come calling once again next weekend.

"We've beaten Inverness twice this season already and they've beaten us, but we won't fear them," said Balatoni.

"Hopefully, it'll be a decent game and we'll take the confidence from the St Johnstone game and get another three points."

That's third-placed Inverness, who are in arguably their worst Premiership form of the season having failed to win any of their last three and, last time out, allowed Motherwell to claim their only win in 11 matches this year.

Go on... who's your money on?