A SENSE of deja vu offers Partick Thistle a degree of comfort during a difficult start to the season. Four games into their Premiership campaign and Alan Archibald’s side have yet to put a single point on the board.

They can considerate themselves unfortunate for that to be the case, with Saturday’s 4-3 thriller a case in point. Thistle ought to have at least earned a draw with high-flying Aberdeen in a compelling contest at Firhill but, having recovered from falling behind 1-0 and then 3-2, they were finally sunk by an Adam Rooney header five minutes from the end. The loss of Niall Keown to an injury-time red card merely poured salt into the wounds.

It was not how Archibald and his players wanted to go into the international break, with the manager admitted the situation is concerning. But what will serve as consolation as they pause for reflection is the fact that they have been in a similar situation before. Only last season, in fact.

Thistle did, admittedly, win their opening league game of that campaign against Inverness but then failed to win any of their next nine matches. After two away wins on the bounce, they then embarked on another long winless streak, this one stretching over seven matches. By the time they travelled to play Ross County two days before Christmas they were rock bottom of the pile.

That visit to Dingwall and a 3-1 away win was the start of the recovery and Archibald’s men would go on to finish in the top half of the table after the split for the first time in their history. It is why there is no panic at taking no points from 12 at the start of this campaign.

Chris Erskine, who scored the first of Thistle’s trio of goals at the weekend with Kris Doolan and Keown also weighing in, admitted this is not how the team had envisaged opening their campaign but insisted they would find a way to eventually turn things around.

He said: “The break is not ideal given the position we are in. But we have been here before so we won’t be panicking. We have enough quality in the dressing room.

“Ideally coming off a defeat we would like to be back in action next week again. We have a winnable game against Ross County so hopefully we can get our season up and running then.

“But we are all disappointed. To score three goals and come away with nothing is both heart-breaking and not good enough. If we had come away with a point we would have been quite happy. But we didn’t defend well enough and we conceded easy goals.”

The match turned on the decision to award Aberdeen a penalty three minutes before half-time with Thistle 2-1 ahead. There didn’t seem much contact between Stuart Bannigan and Ryan Christie but referee Bobby Madden pointed to the spot and Kenny McLean tucked away his kick. That, and Keown’s second booking late in the match, irritated some in the Thistle camp.

But Erskine admitted: “I was a bit frustrated with some of the decisions but I think there were decisions which went against both teams. I don’t think that’s what lost us the game.

“I think the penalty is soft but it is probably a penalty. I don’t think the referee has given the red card until the Aberdeen staff and players are round the referee.”

The midfielder’s strike took him to 50 goals for the Maryhill club but he couldn’t properly enjoy the moment given the scoreline. “It would have been nice for it to mean something as it is a big landmark for me personally. It will be nice to look back on but maybe not today.”