ONLY time will tell just how damaging this 2-0 defeat at the hands of Hamilton will be for Partick Thistle.

The immediate effects have been minimal by the failure of the teams below Jags to take advantage.

While Airdrie lost out at home against St Johnstone, Ross County and Queen of the South both drew with Clyde and Dundee respectively.

That collective cocktail of underachievement by the sides desperate to drag Thistle into the relegation mire, means Dick Campbell's side remain seven points clear of the play-off zone and 11 away from relegation-haunted Airdrie.

Yet the Firhill men would only have had themselves to blame if they had been sucked into a fight for safety.

However, they would have had good reason to complain over referee Stuart Dougal's decision to red-card Paddy Keogh.

The defender slid through Richard Offiong - connecting with the ball. Then the giant Jags star retreated, accidentally standing on Offiong, who reacted angrily and appeared to headbutt Keogh. Amazingly both were sent off in a calamitous piece of officiating.

But today their manager Dick Campbell refused to blame Dougal.

He said: "I am not going to be blaming the referee. We've lost a game that was there to be won. We had five chances to score inside the box before Paddy Keogh's sending-off and that changed the game. But we looked absolutely knackered and that is a concern."

He went on: "It was also a game of two penalties. We have conceded a bad one and we missed our own and ultimately that is what cost us. We had the chances to put this one to bed and didn't take them and that is what cost us."

After a dismal opening spell Jags should have been ahead when Sam Morrow's glancing header cannoned off the bar, with the rebound just eluding Keogh.

The pivotal moment arrived in 35 minutes when Keogh and Offiong saw red, badly unsettling Thistle.

Within two minutes Accies took a shock lead. Craig Sives was adjudged to have brought down James Gibson in the home box and Tony Stevenson converted the resulting penalty.

But in 56 minutes Thistle were given a lifeline when Tom Parratt chopped Mark Roberts in the Accies box after a superb through ball from Morrow. However Roberts' tame penalty was comfortably saved by Sean Murdoch.

With eight minutes left the roof fell in on Jags when Davie Elebert's drive took a wicked deflection off Brown Ferguson to send Jonny Tuffey the wrong way and put the game beyond Thistle.

Delighted Accies'chief Billy Reid, whose side have now moved back into third place, said: "The sending- off changed the game our way and I don't know why. Hamilton Accies are all about bringing kids through and we had six teenagers out there. I think at the end we had the legs off Thistle."

Partick Thistle: Tuffey, Robertson, McChrystal (Boyd 25), Brady, Keogh, Sives (Hodge 81), Ferguson, Young, Morrow, Roberts, Strachan (McConalogue 65). Subs not used: Arthur, Kane.

Hamilton: Murdoch, Parratt, Gibson, Swailes (Wilson 13), Elebert, Easton, Stevenson, McArthur, Offiong, McCarthy (Wake 61), McLeod (Gilhaney 61). Subs not used: Jellema, Winters.

Att: 2178. Ref: Stuart Dougal.