NEIL McCANN launched a savage attack on referee Euan Anderson and heavily criticised his own players as they somehow allowed Partick Thistle to finally end their winless run with an injury-time winner.

McCann’s rage centred on the 21st-minute penalty incident when, with Dundee already a goal to the good, Tomas Cerny brought down AJ Leitch-Smith.

The Dundee manager contends Cerny should have been sent off, despite the new rules on penalty decisions, and the situation was exacerbated when Leitch-Smith missed from the spot when Sofien Moussa was the pre-match taker.

Then Thistle produced an astonishing late burst, levelling through Ryan Edwards in 71 minutes then winning it two minutes into stoppage time through Miles Storey.

Furious McCann said: “I don’t think that Cerny makes any attempt whatsoever to get to the ball.

“He’s cleaned out the player, without a doubt. I’m absolutely fizzing inside; I can’t tell you how much. It takes me all my control not to lose my rag at the side of the pitch and get sent to the stand.

“That was a disgraceful decision today. I don’t care what anybody says, Cerny made no attempt to play the ball and he should have walked.

“But he doesn’t and then he saves the penalty – and then he has another wonder-save at the end which bites us right in the backside. I can’t tell you how angry I am.

“I don’t think there is a score below 10 for anger and frustration.

“I don’t know how we have lost that – well I do know, we were not clinical.

“We had a chance to bury them from the penalty. We have a designated penalty taker – Moussa – and for some reason we decided to change that and we missed the penalty.

“At half-time it’s not such a big story, it’s a big story now because that buries Partick Thistle.

“We were so far in front and also playing some beautiful stuff. But I said it last week, it only looks nice on the eye and the stats because it gets you nothing,

“We didn’t get that second goal and we had chances in the second half to get it.”

Leitch-Smith had headed Dundee into the lead from Kevin Holt’s cross in eight minutes and after Moussa missed a hatful of chances Thistle somehow got back into it.

Kris Doolan was involved in both goals. Edwards followed up to score after Doolan’s shot had been saved in 71 minutes then he set up Storey with a low cross right at the death.

Alan Archibald surprisingly avoided post-match media duties after the first victory of the season, but assistant Scott Paterson said the whole squad were behind him.

And he admitted he couldn’t care less about how the Jags snatched their first three points of the campaign.

Paterson said: “One thing I will say about Archie, he’s a strong character. I have been lucky enough to work with him and play with him and we’re also good friends.

“So I’m delighted for him and so are the players. They have so much respect for him as well.

“They are just as disappointed when we don’t win games or don’t play well so they all want to do well for him. We are all in it together.

“The main thing for us is we won the game. We knew we were still in it at half-time. Yes, Tam had saved a penalty, but we were still in it.

“I think the players deserve a lot of credit, especially as it was at home where our confidence has been low because of the run we have been on.

“I thought they showed a lot of character and I’m delighted hey pulled through to get the three points.

“We lost an early goal and then we survived the penalty incident and Tam also pulled off a great save in the second half.

“But we don’t care because all we wanted to do was win the game and now we want to build on this for Tuesday night’s game against Hamilton.

“Our subs were lively and played their part and I’m delighted for Miles in particular to get his first goal.”