When Partick Thistle were struggling to find the net during their early-season winless run, a fact that was largely overlooked was their excellent defensive record.

Despite still lying in eleventh place in the Premiership table, Alan Archibald’s side have actually conceded just 14 goals in their 11 league games so far this season, an identical record to third-placed Hearts.

A key component in the success of their defensive unit is the consistency of the largely unheralded but continually impressive left-back Callum Booth. His determined defending and ability to provide an outlet on the Thistle left make him one of the first names on Alan Archibald’s teamsheet, and was a major factor in Thistle withstanding a second-half onslaught from St Johnstone on Saturday. In typically selfless fashion, he credits the quality and depth of the defensive unit as a whole for their effectiveness.

He said: “It’s not helped the back four that there’s been suspensions and injuries, but there’s six of us there in total and anyone that comes in can do a good job.

“Gary Miller proved it at the weekend there when he came in after not playing for a couple of weeks and played well and got a great goal, and Freddie (Frans) as well, he’s playing at a high level, so there’s six of us all fighting to play on a Saturday which shows you that there’s great strength in depth in our defence.

“I was looking at our defensive record and Dundee United and Motherwell, the two teams directly below us and above us, have conceded more than us and Kilmarnock have too.

“Last season as well we had a really good defensive record, we don’t concede many and we’ve continued that on this season.

“Obviously we won’t be getting credit for that when we’re down near the bottom of the league, but it’s definitely good and hopefully that can continue.”

Scoring goals at the other end has largely been the problem for Partick Thistle this term, but five goals in the last two matches suggests that a corner may have been turned.

Full-backs Mustapha Dumbuya and Gary Miller have both contributed to that haul, and Booth admits he is also desperate to get in on the act – if only to get assistant manager Scott Paterson off his back.

“He’s always on at me in training and he’s right, I haven’t scored for Partick and it’s something that I’m not too happy about,” he said.

“I always try to get a couple a season, and if you look at Stephen O’Donnell last season he got six or seven from full-back and it’s something I should be doing.

“I’ve had a few chances this year, so hopefully it’s something that’s going to come. I agree with Scotty that I should be chipping in with a few more.

“Gary’s goal was a wonder-strike and Mus scored the week before as well, so the full-backs are chipping in, unfortunately just not me! Hopefully I can put that right in the coming weeks.”

Goals apart, Booth’s excellent form is partly due to a contentment with his surroundings at Firhill, and he now believes that the only way is up for his side after their slow start to the campaign.

“I’m really enjoying working for the manager and I’m settled here,” he said.

“I’ve been here nearly a year now and playing regularly in the Premiership is brilliant. Everything’s really good.

“That’s a quarter of the season gone and we’ve played each team. We feel as if we should be looking to build now and get higher up the table.

“We’ve got two home games in a row now so hopefully we can keep the momentum going after two good results.

“We had belief that things were going to turn around because we were actually putting in decent performances.

“We’ve been playing well and just not getting that bit of luck, we had hit the woodwork so many times, but we knew that it was going to have to change sometime and against Dundee United we proved that.

“With the goals starting to come now it’s looking good at both ends.”