Doolan eases Thistle out of relegation zone

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald praised the ever-reliable Kris Doolan after the striker netted his 99th league goal following his late call-up against Motherwell.

Doolan was drafted in for Conor Sammon after the in-form Irish forward suffered a family bereavement, and found himself completely unmarked to head a 53rd-minute opener from Martin Woods’ free-kick.

Thistle were 11 minutes away from their first win at Fir Park for 22 years until Nadir Ciftci rolled Niall Keown and fired home from 16 yards. But the draw did take Archibald’s side out of the bottom two.

The manager, who also saw Callum Booth and Steven Lawless pull out of the squad late in the week, said: “It was a great header. He was surprised he got so much space but sometimes they are the hardest to finish. It feels as if he has so much time.

“He has had a stop-start season with a bit of injury as well, and our form has not helped him, but you can always rely on him to come in and score a goal. I thought his overall team play was very good as well.”

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson promised there was much more to come from Stephen Hendrie after the former Hamilton and West Ham left-back was taken off at half-time on his debut.

The loan signing from Southend was playing in a wing-back role and Robinson brought on Richard Tait in a bid to provide some spark after a tight opening period.

Robinson said: “It was a bit of a tactical switch to give us more forward impetus. Stephen is still finding his legs. We took him off to protect him a wee bit as well. He was feeling a little bit tight. But [the substitution] was to give us a bit more impetus going forward.”