Hartley felt Dundee were harshly penalised ahead of first goal in defeat to Jags

Dundee manager Paul Hartley felt his team were harshly penalised ahead of the opening goal in a 2-0 defeat by Partick Thistle.

Kostadin Gadzhalov insisted he got the ball as he slid in on Kris Doolan but referee Alan Muir awarded a free-kick which Callum Booth curled home to give Thistle a 16th-minute lead.

The Jags then caught Dundee on the break a minute before the interval and Doolan netted on the rebound after Chris Erskine's strike was saved.

Hartley said: ''There wasn't much in the game, especially first half, we had a good period for 20-25 minutes. But the first goal in the lead-up, it's really soft. Kosta wins the ball and then they punish us. The second goal we are on top of the game for 25 minutes and it's a bit scrappy round their box and they break on us. We have got to be a little bit better and cleverer in terms of defending that.''

Dundee had some late aerial pressure but could not seriously trouble Tomas Cerny.

''We weren't composed in the final third for my liking, we didn't have enough movement in there,'' Hartley said. ''They took their chances and we didn't. We weren't good enough with our final ball.''

Thistle moved up to sixth place in the Ladbrokes Premiership table thanks to their first home win since the opening day of the season.

Manager Alan Archibald said: ''We're delighted to reward the fans with a victory at home and a decent performance. It was quite scrappy, two teams with similar formations matching up against each other and we knew it would take a bit of quality from the creative players on the pitch. It was a good bit of play for the first one and Callum knocks it home, and the same two creative players, Dools and Erskine, linked up well for the second goal. We managed the game in the second half.''