Partick Thistle 1-3 Rangers: Alan Archibald 'disappointed' with officials

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald felt the match officials favoured Rangers at Firhill

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald believes referee Steven McLean was "affected" by Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha's comments ahead of their League Cup quarter-final tie.

Caixinha said teams are more aggressive against Rangers after they drew 2-2 with 10-man Thistle in the league.

"You could see that Pedro's comments affected the officials," Archibald said after Rangers won 3-1 in the cup tie.

"Every 50-50 went their way. I'm so disappointed."

Rangers opened the scoring in the second half at Firhill through midfielder Carlos Pena, who was one of three changes to the visitors' line-up, four days after the teams had met in the Premiership.

Archibald made two changes to his side, replacing the cup-tied Miles Storey and the suspended Chris Erskine, who had been sent off against Rangers in the league.

Partick Thistle striker Kris Doolan equalised in the 90th minute against Rangers

After Rangers were forced to replace defenders Bruno Alves and Declan John through injury, Thistle's push for an equaliser gathered momentum and they were rewarded through substitute Kris Doolan's 90th-minute strike.

Thistle were subdued in extra-time, though, with Rangers establishing a two-goal lead through Daniel Candeias and Eduardo Herrera in the opening period.

"It was a fantastic game to watch, just disappointing [to lose]," said Archibald.

"I thought the boys put so much in, we were in the ascendancy when we scored, and it's hard to put your finger on extra time, and why we dropped off.

"We changed our shape in the second half, we felt the lad No 27 [Pena] was causing a problem in the hole.

"We were just about to bring Kris Doolan on and they scored. We gave Rangers a lot of chances, which was disappointing, they came from a slack pass or dwelling on the ball.

"We deserved our goal when we got it, just disappointed with the reaction in extra-time, because I didn't see it coming."