IN terms of inspiring oratory, it’s easy to fall back on the soaring statements of Churchill during his rousing wartime defiance.

Partick Thistle, meanwhile, could probably find comfort in Dad’s Army. “Don’t panic” was often trotted out by good old Clive Dunn and in these backs-to-the-wall times in the Ladbrokes Premiership, the Jags may just be heeding that advice.

Marooned at the bottom of the table, and four points adrift of Ross County, Kilmarnock and Dundee, it could be easy to get worked into a fevered fankle but Thistle have been here before.

This time last season, they were in a similarly perilous position but a festive flurry helped spark a resurgence and they ended up in the top six. Alan Archibald, the Thistle manager, would prefer to be in those upper echelons instead of propping up the rest but he hopes history can repeat itself.

“We hope so but it’s not just going to happen,” he warned ahead of the proverbial six-pointer against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park this weekend. “We need to work ever so hard and this will be a tough game against Kilmarnock who are one of the form teams in the league.

“It definitely helps having been in this position before but it also helps as it brings a realism. It doesn’t mean we are going to sit back and say we are going to be okay because we have done it before.

“Football doesn’t work like that. The league has become harder, there is no doubt it is tougher this season more than any other.”

Despite an upturn in fortunes under new manager, Steve Clark, Kilmarnock’s home form remains fairly dire and Archibald is well aware of that.

“We hope we can exploit that but we need to do that ourselves as we can only control our own performance,” he added. “We can’t worry about Kilmarnock who were very good against Hibs when I watched them even though they lost the game 3-0 which was surprising.

“They have definitely picked up. There were a lot of things we liked on Saturday about our own performance and there were things that were lacking.”