Hearts 1-1 Partick Thistle: Craig Levein says equaliser should not have stood

Doolan slammed in the equaliser for Thistle but should the goal have been disallowed?

Hearts boss Craig Levein claimed the officials' failure to spot an offside and a handball prior to Partick Thistle's equaliser cost his side a win on their Tynecastle return.

The hosts led through a sweet second-half strike from Isma Goncalves.

But Thistle substitute Kris Doolan swept home a fierce shot with five minutes left to leave Levein fuming.

"I'm disappointed. I thought we did enough to win it, without being brilliant," he told BBC Scotland.

"Then when I see that the equaliser is offside and there's a handball, it makes me more miserable.

"If the officials had done their job a bit better, then they wouldn't have got the goal.

"One of their players is clearly offside when the ball is played in, and there is clearly a handball. That frustrates the life out of me. They had one shot on goal in the entire 90 minutes.

"Maybe the ref and the linesman didn't see the handball, but he is clearly offside. I thought it would take something like that today because defensively we didn't need to get out of second gear. I am sitting here ruing the fact that the linesman didn't do his job properly."

• Match report: Hearts 1-1 Partick Thistle

Despite their failure to see the game out, Hearts moved up a place to seventh, two points off St Johnstone in sixth.

Having played nine of their first 13 Premiership games away, their next five - starting with Ross County next Saturday - are all at their newly redeveloped home in the run-up to Christmas.

"It was good to get the game on and great to play here again," Levein added.

"We would have loved to get the victory, that would have been the icing on the cake, but I can't criticise the players for their effort. The supporters were great and the atmosphere was brilliant."

'It wouldn't have happened if Rangers were coming here'

Kick off was delayed by 15 minutes as Hearts opened their new main stand for the first time

Thistle boss Alan Archibald criticised the SPFL for allowing the uncertainty over whether the game would take place to unfold, with Tynecastle only passing a final safety check on Sunday morning.

"The last couple of days have been quite difficult," he said. "Hearts were in the same boat but I think the league should have taken a stand and made a cut-off point. They could have rescheduled it for Wednesday like they do for cup games.

"I think it would have made more common sense, rather than Hearts rushing about to get the game on. It wouldn't have happened if Rangers were coming here, would it? Let's be honest."

Archibald took solace in a point earned courtesy of Kris Doolan's late equaliser, only their third league goal away from home all season.

"I thought we deserved it," he added. "We took the sting out of the game, which was the plan. Our back three did ever so well and our shape was very good. We had the best chance of the first half.

"I didn't think they deserved a goal. I know it's a good strike (from Isma) but he did the same at Murrayfield last time (against Kilmarnock) and we should not be allowing him to cut inside.

"It's hard to see what happened in the build-up to our goal and whether it hits a hand, but it's a great finish for the equaliser. Kris Doolan has only managed one training session all week."