ONE point from seven games at home explains, in a nutshell, why St Mirren are now level on points with Ross County at the bottom of the SPFL Championship and being booed off the field by supporters who have had enough.

This is a team in terrible trouble. Partick Thistle had not won a match away from home prior to travelling to Paisley yesterday, but they got their act together sufficiently after one of the worst opening periods in the entire history of Association Football to secure the points through a goal from Christie Elliott quarter-of-an-hour from time.

Tommy Craig, the St Mirren manager, believes things will improve when injured players such as Steven Thompson, Gregg Wylde, Paul McGinn and Ellis Plummer return to the line-up and Jim Goodwin stops getting himself suspended for elbowing people in the face. He might be right, but he is under a heck of a lot of pressure right now, a situation he is not unfamiliar with.

"Football pressure is a natural thing to experience in my case," he said. "Listen, without being clever or curt, you are under football pressure if you are not picking up points.

"I can clearly understand the anger of the fans. I am sharing the same feelings. We have one point from seven home games and that is poor. It will be getting to the players."

It certainly looks as if it is. They were dreadful yesterday. They never looked like scoring. In truth, there is not an awful lot to tell when summarising the best of what both sides had to offer.

James Marwood, the St Mirren forward, flashed an angled drive wide of the far post just before the quarter-hour mark with Kenny McLean then forcing visiting goalkeeper, Scott Fox, to make a rare save from a free kick.

McLean caught the attention again on 28 minutes thanks to his quite furious reaction to a clash with Abdul Osman in the centre of the park, in which he did appear to take an elbow in the mouth that went unpunished by referee, John Beaton.

Thistle produced little in the first half other than an early shot from Ryan Stevenson that was easily saved by Marian Kello, but they did improve after the break with Elliott heading over at the back post after being picked out by Stephen O'Donnell.

He would more than make amends with 15 minutes left, though. Declan McDaid had only just entered the fray in place of Steven Lawless when given the freedom to scamper down the right and deliver a cross towards the back post. Elliott took a touch to control the ball before releasing a low drive from inside the area that beat Kello to his right.

"I believe there was a touch of handball, but I don't know if it was intentional," said Craig.

Adam Drury did hit the crossbar for St Mirren in stoppage-time with a shot from 22 yards, but it would have been harsh on Thistle had they been robbed by such a speculative effort.

"It was always going to be one goal that settled it," said Alan Archibald, the Partick manager, who is now waiting anxiously for a full diagnosis on a fresh injury picked up by his injury-plagued captain, Sean Welsh.