GARY Caldwell accused his players of believing their own hype as they threw away a two-goal half-time lead to plunge back to the foot of the table.
Caldwell was furious that his side thought the win was in the bag and then had no reaction as Ross County ruthlessly punished them to enhance their own position as league leaders.
Caldwell said: “We were brilliant for 45 minutes. We were totally in control and it could have been more against the best team in this league,
“And then I think complacency is the word that I would use.
“I said to the players when you think you have cracked it in football that’s when you pay a heavy price.
“You need to keep running and tackling and doing the ugly side of the game to have any chance of winning any football match."
READ MORE: Win at Manchester United would then put title in Liverpool's hands
He added: “We spoke about the importance of the first 10 minutes of the second half because if we gave them anything their energy levels would go up and that’s what happened.
“It’s a massive lesson that we have to learn from.
“When it sets in you can’t get rid of it. The mentality had changed and you can’t turn it round with either tactics or subs.
“As soon as the first goal went in I feared the worst because I didn’t see a reaction.
“There was no positive reaction. When they left the dressing at half-time they thought the job was done.
“It should have been four or five at half-time but we didn’t have that ruthless mentality even if we played well.”
READ MORE: Brush with Orange walk in Glasgow transported Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers back to The Troubles
Thistle were leading thanks to strikes from Aidan Fitzpatrick and Christie Elliott in 21 and 24 minutes.
But the collapse began two minutes into the second half when a Blair Spittal slip allowed Michael Gardyne to set up Ross Stewart.
Jamie Lindsay got the leveller on 64 minutes after Thistle failed to clear their lines and the writing was on the wall.
Stewart headed home Josh Mullin’s corner in 74 minutes, then won a penalty five minutes later when he was tripped by Jack McMillan and Billy McKay slotted home the spot-kick.
Delighted Ross County co-boss Stuart Kettlewell said it spoke volumes about the Highland side's character, especially after going out of the Scottish Cup in 120 minutes during the week to local rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
But he admitted there was a real rollicking at half-time.
He said: “There was strong words. We can give instructions or strip paint off the walls but you need a group of men to come out in the second half and my goodness they did it.
“When we realised we could get ourselves going, we believed we could win. It’s massive for us.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here