Partick Thistle supporters had a barb at the hullabaloo going on in the East End of the city at the start of this match by chanting ‘there’s only one team in Glasgow’. Unfortunately for them, that team proved to be St Johnstone, as they brushed aside the challenge of a slipshod home outfit to claim a deserved three points.

St Johnstone had lost all three meetings between the sides last season, but from the moment Steven Anderson popped up in the box to open the scoring mid-way through the first-half a Thistle victory never seemed remotely likely. A stunning effort from Steven MacLean just after the hour wrapped up the spoils, and sealed Thistle’s slump to the bottom of the table after three defeats on the bounce.

MacLean had been told by his manager Tommy Wright to get into the box more prior to this game as he didn’t have the power to be shooting from range, but the striker says he wasn’t trying to prove a point.

“I didn’t think I could score from there either!” MacLean laughed.

“It’s just opened up, I’ve struck it and hit it perfect, so I’ll take them when they come along because they don’t come around often.

“Normally it’s from six yards and that’s my limit these days.”

The home side had started the match well, and Zander Clark – who started in place of the ill Alan Mannus - had to look sharp to stop Kris Doolan latching onto a scuffed Stevie Lawless shot.

St Johnstone almost took the lead with a foray forward after quarter of an hour, but Tomas Cerny was able to palm away MacLean’s goal-bound effort from a clever Ricky Foster cut-back.

Their band of supporters didn’t have to wait long to celebrate though, with the opening goal soon arriving from an unlikely source.

The man providing the assist was no surprise, as Danny Swanson curled a lovely ball to the back post where Saints’ centre-half Anderson of all people was lurking to cushion a well-controlled side-foot volley beyond Cerny.

Thistle had plenty of the ball, but all too often their build-up play was too slow and ponderous. Their front four showed some faint signs of clicking into gear, but they never seriously tested stand-in keeper Clark.

There was a further blow for Thistle as their goalkeeper was forced off with what looked like the recurrence of the ankle injury that had kept him out at the start of the season after collecting a bouncing ball ahead of Liam Craig.

Deputy Ryan Scully almost had to pick the ball out of the net as one of his first duties, but Chris Kane’s overhead kick looped just over the bar.

The interval brought a reshuffle from Thistle boss Alan Archibald, with Ryan Edwards replacing Ade Azeez and Kris Doolan moving to centre-forward.

The substitute missed a glorious opportunity to level as Callum Booth hung a ball up towards the back post that was begging to be headed home, but with Ziggy Gordon also arriving, the Australian could only glance harmlessly wide.

Edwards had his head in his hands again just after the hour as he miscued a pass straight to Swanson inside the Thistle half. He instantly fed MacLean and the striker took a couple of touches to set himself before curling that glorious shot high beyond Scully.

“I didn’t hear Ziggy shouting, but I got contact on the ball and I should have scored anyway,” Edwards said afterwards.

“I should equalise and then two minutes later I give a sloppy pass away and they score from it. It’s disappointing from my end and frustrating.”

Apart from a shot on the slide from Lawless that squirmed just wide, there wasn’t much by way of response from a flat Thistle outfit, and St Johnstone comfortably saw the game out to climb to fourth and arrest a run of two defeats on the bounce.

For the home side, the challenge now is to remain positive after three losses in-a-row, as they look to avoid a similarly poor run that dogged the start to last season.

“We’re not at the panicking stage yet,” Edwards added.

“We hadn’t won in nine league games last season so we’re already better than that. If we can get a run of games going we can jump right back up the table, so we just need to focus on our next game.”

PARTICK THISTLE: Cerny (Scully, 39’); Gordon, Lindsay, Devine, Booth; Osman, Welsh (Amoo, 64’); Erskine, Doolan, Lawless; Azeez (Edwards, 45’)

ST JOHNSTONE: Clark; Foster, Anderson, Shaughnessy, Easton; Swanson, (Wotherspoon, 70’), Millar, Paton, Craig; Kane (Cummins, 59’), MacLean.

Scorers: Anderson (22’), MacLean (64’)

Booked: Swanson (70’)

Man of the match: Steven MacLean (St Johnstone)

Referee: Steven McLean

Attendance: 2885