Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald blamed the officials for denying his side what would have been a deserved three points against Hamilton at the Superseal Stadium yesterday.

The home side had gone ahead through Alex D’Acol early on, but a second-half equaliser from Sean Welsh set Thistle up to dominate the closing stages before the game’s biggest moment of controversy arrived with a little over 15 minutes remaining.

Hamilton’s Grant Gillespie and Michael Devlin conspired to concede possession cheaply to Chris Erskine, who played a lovely exchange with Callum Booth that saw the former fire across goal for the latter to belt home, only for his celebrations to be cut short by the assistant’s flag.

“The linesman has got it wrong, it’s not offside,” Archibald said after the game. “I thought they had a bad day the officials and that compounded it.

“I’ve seen it back and the boys thought it at the time, that was their reaction. That’s a sore one to take, but the performance was very good, I thought we dominated the second-half.

“I didn’t ask the referee about it, you’re wasting your time, it’s wasting your breath. I didn’t get into it with them, they just said it was offside.”

The legitimacy of Hamilton’s opener was also somewhat contentious. Thistle defender Liam Lindsay had the ball at his feet inside his own area, but seemingly inexplicably, he let it get away from him to allow D’Acol to side-step Tomas Cerny and fire home.

Adam Barton was booked by referee Don Robertson such was the strength of his protests that his teammate had been fouled, with Lindsay claiming to be impeded by D’Acol as he tried to clear.

“I’ve not looked at that back yet, but Liam thought it was a foul on him,” said Archibald. “He’s went to clear the ball and his foot gets tangled with his. It’s a hard one to take too, the boys thought it was a foul. I just hope the referee is sure, but I’ve not seen it back.

“It’s frustrating but we’ve said to the lads that we need to win these six-pointers. It’s a tight, tight group and in the last quarter we didn’t win enough of those games.

“We need to make sure we win those. It’s a hard place to come this, but I thought we did enough to get the three points today.”

All Hamilton manager Martin Canning wanted for his 35th birthday was for his side to hold onto that lead, or any lead for that matter. Thistle’s comeback spoilt his celebrations though as Hamilton failed to see out a game from a winning position for a remarkable ninth time this season alone in the league.

Erskine hooked the ball into the area with his first touch after coming on just beyond the hour, where a poor clearing header from former Thistle defender Seaborne landed into the path of Welsh. The midfielder calmly controlled before slotting a lovely side-foot finish into the bottom corner.

“It’s annoying we aren’t able to hold onto a lead,” said Canning. “It’s not like we gave them lots of opportunities and it’s backs to the wall. We were still a threat ourselves, Rakish [Bingham] went through at 1-0 but we couldn’t finish.

“That’s something we aren’t doing well enough - we’re expecting to hang on to a 1-0 lead instead of trying to kill off the game. We’ll address that. We take a point and move on.

“I don’t think we deserved to win the game and a draw was a fair reflection on the 90 minutes. We’ve been more dominant in other games but a draw was probably a fair result.”

That summary was open to debate, with Thistle probably feeling they should have won the match given their territorial dominance in the second-half even allowing for their controversially disallowed goal from Booth.

The first-half was more even in terms of chances, although the best fell to Ade Azeez after a high ball over the top from Welsh. The striker - who has previously shown a lack of composure in such situations - again blew his big moment though, lifting the ball harmlessly over the bar.

Former Accies defender Ziggy Gordon was screaming from a penalty soon after as the ball appeared to strike the arm of former Thistle man Seaborne, and Kris Doolan sent a header off the foot of the post following good work down the left from Booth.

Hamilton’s best chance outwith their goal came at the start of the second half, Darian MacKinnon shrugging off Ryan Edwards in midfield before sliding in Rakish Bingham, but the striker fired just over from the edge of the area.

Thistle dominated thereafter, but for all that a winner wouldn’t have flattered the Firhill men, the game rather fizzled out towards the end as both sides ensured that the bottom of the table remained as bunched up as ever.

HAMILTON: Woods; Devlin, Seaborne, Sowah; Gillespie, MacKinnon, Donati (Docherty, 52’), Crawford, Imrie; Bingham (Brophy 70’), D’Acol.

Scorers: D’Acol (15’)

Booked: Gillespie (40’), MacKinnon (50’), Crawford (84’), Seaborne (86’)

PARTICK THISTLE: Cerny; Gordon, Devine, Lindsay; Elliott, Osman, Welsh, Edwards, Booth; Azeez (Erskine, 60’), Doolan.

Scorers: Welsh (61’)

Booked: Barton (15’), Lindsay (90’)

Man of the match: Sean Welsh (Partick Thistle)

Referee: Don Robertson

Attendance: 2210