There was plenty said in the aftermath of the draw between Hamilton and Partick Thistle about the influence of the officials on the match’s outcome, particularly from the visiting side who were rightly aggrieved about a perfectly legitimate Callum Booth goal being ruled out for offside with a little over 15 minutes remaining.

Without that erroneous call from assistant referee David Doig, Thistle would have likely left Lanarkshire with all three points rather than the one they did travel back to Maryhill with, and it would have been a just reward for their efforts in the second period.

For Hamilton though, the key moment in the match came soon after half-time, when they were still leading through Alex D’Acol’s first-half goal. Midfielder Darian MacKinnon shrugged off Ryan Edwards before releasing Rakish Bingham, but the striker was unable to convert a golden chance and before too long, a familiar failing of Martin Canning’s side reared its head yet again; their inability to hold onto a lead.

And so it proved to be their Achilles heel yet again. There was a feeling of the inevitable about Sean Welsh’s equaliser, with Hamilton now blowing winning positions in a scarcely believable nine of 15 games in this season’s Premiership.

“It’s frustrating,” stated Grant Gillespie after the game, which was a little self-evident. “Obviously it’s happened on numerous occasions this season, but again we didn’t feel that Partick Thistle were any better than us.

“The frustration again is that we didn’t see the game out. We’ve taken the lead again and we haven’t managed to hold onto it, and that’s where the frustration lies. It’s something that we’ve got to address and hopefully we can put it right. The fact that the league is so tight just adds to that frustration.

“There’s possibly a wee bit of anxiety creeps in when it’s still one-nil. We know that anything can happen in football, so we have to stay strong-minded, keep playing and keep doing the right things and it will start to turn for us.”

It had all started so well for Hamilton as they edged in front through D’Acol’s goal in what was an otherwise humdrum opening half. Thistle were aggrieved that the goal was allowed to stand after feeling that defender Liam Lindsay had been fouled by Hamilton’s striker as he tried to clear the ball, allowing it to run loose for the Brazilian to round Tomas Cerny and score.

Hamilton contended that Lindsay had in fact kicked D’Acol as he swung his leg back to clear, and referee Don Robertson agreed, waving away Adam Barton’s protests with a yellow card.

Ade Azeez blew a wonderful opportunity to equalise, lifting the ball over when clean through on Gary Woods. It almost appears as if the more time the Thistle forward has to mull over an opportunity, the greater the likelihood becomes that the ball won’t be finding its way into the net.

Kris Doolan headed off the post after good work down the left from Booth before the interval, but any notion that Hamilton’s lead might just be able to survive the consistent Thistle probing was ended just after the hour.

Substitute Chris Erskine’s first involvement was to hook a ball into the Hamilton area that former Firhill defender Dan Seaborne failed to deal with effectively, presenting the ball to Welsh on the edge of the box. The midfielder tamed the bouncing ball before producing the cutest of side-foot finishes to outfox Woods in the Accies goal and deservedly draw his side level.

Then came the moment of controversy that vexed Thistle so, and it was hard for visiting goalkeeper Cerny to hide his disappointment as his comeback game after a foot injury ended without just reward for his side.

“I thought we deserved three points,” Cerny said. “We were the better team and I thought there was one or two decisions that probably cost us those three points.

“I don’t criticise referees because I know it is difficult for them, it’s a hard job and they don’t want to hurt you, I know they do their best.

“But it is still frustrating when a couple of decisions go against you and it’s a shame because I thought we deserved to win the game today.

“I’ve seen the disallowed goal and he’s onside, so that’s a hard one to swallow because it was toward the end and that would have been two-one for us. Instead of being second-bottom we could have been in the top six, so it’s a massive difference for us.”