Conor Sammon is hoping unity will be Partick Thistle’s strength as they head into some of the biggest games of their season.

The bottom-of-the-table Jags had been stung by a 4-0 thumping to relegation rivals Ross County last mid-week and put in a much better performance against high-flying Kilmarnock at the weekend.

Despite the improved showing, however, Thistle’s fortunes didn’t show any signs of changing as they sagged to a ninth game without a victory. Even more concerning is the lack of goals. Alan Archibald’s men have now gone five games without scoring in an increasingly worrying drought that will just about spark a hosepipe ban on Maryhill Road.

Thistle desperately need to find their scoring touch heading into the post-split fixtures which will decide their fate. Sammon had a sniff of goal on Saturday but his prod from a nice Chris Erskine ball was blocked by Killie keeper Jamie MacDonald. It summed up Thistle’s day as Killie’s hard-working rear-guard managed to repel the home side’s advances.

They were caught cold too, when a quick free-kick by Kilmarnock led to Jordan Jones getting a cross in for Stuart Findlay to head home. It was a loss of concentration which proved highly costly in the final analysis.

With Ross County missing out on a decisive three points on Saturday as Hibernian grabbed a last gasp equaliser in Dingwall, Thistle could at least be thankful for small mercies with the gap between the bottom two remaining at just a point.

Sammon is hoping the troops can now be rallied for a final push over what will be a fraught few weeks on the frontline of the relegation battle.

Sammon said: “We are always pushing each other on in training and we have some quiet lads in the team but football is full of different characters and you can have lads that shout, but anyone can do that and the important thing is to stick together.

“We are there to be shot at. No one wants to be in this position. And it’s up to this group of players to get out of it. We have five games to do the business and try to finish the season on a high.

“It was a good save from MacDonald but I should have scored. It was at a really crucial time in the second half as well.

“We feel we have shown enough fight for the last few games. We feel we have enough about us to perform better than we did in our previous games and we had a decent reaction from the Ross County defeat. We started quite brightly and Kilmarnock are in a good run so they are hard to beat.

“I thought we edged the game to be honest. It was a sloppy mistake for us to allow them to take a quick free the way they did and score but in the second half we created plenty of opportunities but just didn’t take them. There is plenty of encouragement to take into the last five games.

“We just have to keep doing the right things and making opportunities. They are all massive games now. After the split it is huge for everyone but we can only look after ourselves now.

“I would love to be scoring and helping the team to points but it is frustrating and we have to show character now and show what we are made of. I’ve got confidence in this group of lads that we can pull ourselves out of this situation."