Partick Thistle gleefully accepted a huge slice of fortune last night to defeat Motherwell and give themselves some precious breathing space in the congested logjam that is the bottom half of the Premiership table.

A late hit and hope by Stevie Lawless that had possibly two deflections, but certainly a telling one off Stephen McManus, saw the ball deceive Motherwell goalkeeper Conor Ripley and decisively swing the game in the home side’s favour.

On first sight of the pitch upon arrival at Firhill, the initial thought was that the surface must have been in a serious state of disrepair to have been deemed unplayable when they first tried to get this fixture on back at the beginning of December.

The wing in front of the Jackie Husband stand was as threadbare as the scalps of a great many of our senior footballers before the great hair transplant explosion of 2015, but in fairness, it had little bearing on a game that offered so much early promise but ultimately fell flatter than Sky Sports News on transfer deadline day. Even Jim White though may have struggled to inject some artificial excitement into this one until the game exploded into life in stoppage time.

First, there was the goal, and despite the misfortune of the deflection, Motherwell manager Mark McGhee was incandescent with the manner in which they lost it. Substitute Lionel Ainsworth was the man who felt the full wrath of his furious manager for failing to track Lawless and allowing him to get the crucial shot away.

He said: “It’s hard to take. I think we did enough to get something out of the game.

“At 0-0 anything can happen, we can win it, they can win it, and unfortunately we’re the team that’s made the mistake and switched off.

“The boy has got in and got a shot, it’s a big deflection, but he should never have been able to get the shot away. We’ve sold the game really.

“We’re disappointed in the nature of the goal and the way we lost it, regardless of when the goal is how the goal came that’s the most disappointing thing.

“I’m not going to criticise my players here, but we made a mistake that was avoidable, and with a bit of better thinking and a bit of alertness we could have avoided it. It cost us a goal and it cost us the game.”

It looked early on as if there would be a glut of goals as the match started in a strikingly open fashion.

Motherwell’s Marvin Johnson created the first opening, skinning right-back Gary Miller and getting to the by-line, but his low cross across goal was eventually hacked away by Dan Seaborne.

Lawless then flashed a volley from the edge of the area a foot or so past the post by way of reply for the home side, before Seaborne should have done better than head straight at Conor Ripley from a Stuart Bannigan corner.

Both teams then seemed to decide that the best way to deal with the condition of the pitch was to let the ball touch it on as few occasions as possible, with high balls being exchanged between the defences with tedious regularity.

Thistle had handed out 2000 yellow cards to their supporters prior to the match, and referee Barry Cook seemed to be trying to ensure that the home players in particular didn’t miss out, booking four of them in the first half alone.

Thankfully, both sides got it back down on the sand as we approached half-time to take the focus off of the official, but despite a rather optimistic-looking penalty claim from Motherwell’s Marvin Johnson, neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled before the interval.

The visitors started the second period brightly, and they worked a great chance for Stephen Pearson inside the area, but the midfielder’s curling attempt was brilliantly blocked behind by Seaborne.

Morgaro Gomis entered the fray for his Motherwell debut just after the hour, but it was Thistle who were next to threaten as Callum Booth’s volley was helped over by the outstretched leg of McManus, before Mathias Pogba headed over at the back post following a deep cross by Miller.

It all looked to be sailing aimlessly towards a goalless draw until a break from the home side as the clock ticked into added time sealed an unlikely, and crucial, three points for Thistle. The ball was worked from right to left where Lawless tried his luck from the edge of the area. It looked to be covered by Ripley, but the unfortunate deflection off McManus saw the ball change direction and fly past the goalkeeper’s despairing right hand.

It was cruel on the visitors, but if fortune was going to drop in favour of either team then it was fitting it benefited Thistle, as they had shown the greater endeavour to claim the points rather than settle for the draw.

Their manager, Alan Archibald, was delighted not only with the points, but that he had managed to keep hold of the goalscorer beyond the January transfer window.

“I thought it was going to take something like that whether it was a scrappy goal or a set play,” he said.

“I think both teams cancelled each other out for long periods. We are delighted we got the goal at the right time.

“I didn’t want to lose a good player. Stevie has played 95 per cent of our games and is a real creative force, even by creating space for others.

“I was adamant I didn’t want to let any of our good players go. It sends out the wrong signal to the dressing room and other clubs.”

McManus almost atoned for his intervention at the wrong end with a dramatic last-gasp equaliser, as his header from Ainsworth’s corner was brilliantly headed off the line by Gary Fraser. It was Motherwell’s first effort on target, and their last chance to salvage a point.

PARTICK THISTLE: Cerny; Miller, Seaborne, Frans, Booth; Welsh (Pogba, 65’), Osman; Elliot (Amoo, 72’), Lawless, Bannigan; Doolan (Fraser, 89’)

Scorers: Lawless (90’+1’)

Booked: Miller (24’), Seaborne (30’), Bannigan (35’), Osman (36’)

MOTHERWELL: Ripley; Law, Hall (Kennedy, 61’), McManus, Hammell; Cadden, Pearson, Lasley, Johnson; McDonald, Moult (Gomis, 61’).

Booked: Pearson (41’)

Referee: Barry Cook

Attendance: 2487

Man of the match: Stevie Lawless (Partick Thistle)