On a day when little went right for Dundee United, there was at least one positive in the return from injury of defender Callum Morris.
The 25-year-old’s last game had been against St Johnstone on September 26 however he played for the full 90 minutes against Partick Thistle on Saturday.
He was though helpless to prevent the Jags taking all three points with Motherwell’s win over Dundee also meaning the Tangerines are now eight points adrift at the foot of the Premiership table.
Despite the grim situation, Morris insists everyone in the United dressing-room is determined to remain positive.
He said: “We have to be. You can’t take a second to feel sorry for yourself.
“If you do that, it can only have a negative effect on the changing-room.
“So we will look at the video analysis and see what we can do to improve next week.
“When I was at Dunfermline we had the points deduction and then were in the relegation play-off. I was also around at Newcastle when we got relegated.
“But I think this is one of the better squads I have been in that’s been involved in this situation.
“The lads were just saying if we can nick a scrappy goal somewhere and take a 1-0, then hopefully we can kick on from there.
“Results wise, we can’t shy away from it but I think we have a lot of quality here and we just need that final bit to click.
“Its points that count and that’s what is crucial next Saturday.”
Tangerines boss Mixu Paatelainen handed a debut to former Borussia Dortmund and West Ham midfielder Guy Demel with John Rankin dropping to the bench where he was joined by skipper Sean Dillon who was replaced by the fit-again Morris.
United suffered a big setback in just the 10th minute when Florent Sinama Pongolle had to be replaced by Charlie Telfer.
There was plenty of honest endeavour on show but little in the way of flair or invention as the half progressed with both goalkeepers in more danger of catching a cold instead of shots on target.
Indeed, the only opportunity even remotely worthy of mention in the opening 45 fell to Blair Spittal when he latched onto a through ball by Billy Mckay but he shot well over.
Four minutes after the restart, Thistle keeper Tomas Cerny finally had a save to make from a Paul Dixon thunderbolt long-range shot.
However, the home side were stunned when Partick took the lead in the 51st minute with their first chance of the match when Kris Doolan hit a left-footed shot on the turn from 14 yards past the diving Michal Szromnik and into the corner of the net.
United then had another big scare when a Steven Lawless cross from the left took a deflection and hit off Szronmik’s post.
The Tangerines had a great opportunity to equalise on the hour mark when they capitalised on a Thistle error with Telfer playing in fellow sub Rankin but he dragged his shot wide of Cerny’s far post.
United had a big shout for a penalty in the 83rd minute when the ball appeared to strike Liam Lindsay’s hand inside the Thistle box but referee Steven McLean was not interested and Partick held on to take all three points.
When it was suggested to Morris that the fact the Jags had just one chance and took it summed up the way things were going for United at the moment, he said: “Exactly. We would obviously have been happy if we were on the other end of it, scoring one scrappy goal and defending for the whole game.
“But it’s not happening for us at the moment so we will go back and work hard all week before heading up to Inverness and hopefully get three points.”
Morris also admitted that he is not paying too much attention to the league table at the moment.
He added: “That’s all irrelevant for me personally. We just have to concentrate on each game as it comes and not get too ahead of ourselves looking at matches coming up.
“We have to put in a performance every week and hopefully get a positive result.
“I think no matter where you are in the league, each game is pretty much a must-win.
“Obviously for us it is even more crucial that we pick up points.
“We know what we have to do and we just need to go and do it.”