St Johnstone 1-2 Partick Thistle: Wright sees red at ref decision

St Johnstone appealed for a penalty

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright reckons referee John Beaton and his assistants blundered in not awarding his side a late penalty in Perth.

Partick Thistle captain Abdul Osman was sent off for his second bookable offence when deliberately handling the ball with a few minutes to go.

"I've seen it back and it should be a penalty." said Wright, whose side would have had a chance to level at 2-2.

"It's disappointing when it was so far in the box."

Wright, who signed a new four-year contract with the club earlier this week, had looked at pictures of the incident immediately after the final whistle as his side lost 2-1.

"It happened quickly and the linesman told the players that he wasn't sure it was in, but it was clearly well inside the box," he said.

First-half goals from Gary Miller and Steven Lawless had put Thistle in command.

"Any defeat is disappointing, but the first half we didn't play particularly well," admitted Wright.

"We didn't clear their crosses particularly well, but to be honest they scored with two wonder strikes.

Gary Miller put Partick Thistle into the lead against his former club

"They could hit them another 20 times and they wouldn't go in, while we created a lot of chances but they didn't go in.

"But we have had a reasonable start to the first set of 11 matches as we are two or three points ahead of the same stage last season, so we will build on that."

Thistle manager Alan Archibald was delighted to see his side rack up consecutive wins for the first time this season.

The result still leaves the Jags second bottom in the table, but they showed real spirit and commitment to dig a valuable three points at a venue where they hadn't won since 1994.

"It was very satisfying to win at a place where we hadn't done that for 20-odd years, especially against a side in such great form," he said.

"We made it hard for ourselves in the second half, but the boys really dug in there to get the result and it's great to see us scoring goals now.

"It was two wonder goals at that and I was delighted for Stevie Lawless and Gary Miller to get them as Stevie has been working really hard to create chances.

"Gary only found out late that he was playing as Mustapha Dumbuya was ill on the morning of the match and he came in and did a great job.

"Getting the first goal in this league is vital and that has made a difference and back-to-back wins gives us something to build on."