Partick Thistle striker Kris Doolan admits he was disappointed not to hit his century of goals for the club against Hearts after tormenting Jambos stand-in centre-half Lennard Sowah on Saturday.

Doolan took advantage of a terrible defensive header from the former Hamilton defender to fire Thistle in front early on, before Liam Lindsay underlined their superiority on the day by getting a second to seal the points.

It could have been more though, and Doolan feels that he in particular should have had more than the one goal that ticked his tally on to 98 for the Firhill club after taking advantage of the weakness at the heart of the Jambos backline.

“We’re even closer!” said Doolan. “I probably should have had another one or two, so I maybe should have hit the hundred today, but it wasn’t to be. I’ll take 98.

“I think they’ve obviously put a boy in there who is not a centre-half to do a job, and sometimes it’s a tough job when you’re moved out of position like that.

“I feel sorry for him that he’s obviously had to do that but it’s something we had to capitalise on and right from the start we targeted that.

“Any kind of advantage you can get we’ll take, whether it’s the slightest advantage of a player being moved out of position or anything else. Whatever we can find we’ll take it.”

The invention and movement of Doolan and Chris Erskine tormented the Hearts backline all day, as they effortlessly found room in areas where they could hurt their opponents.

“You have to fight in the box to make space,” said Doolan. “Playing with Chris Erskine up front, he will make space for me and I’ll make space for him, that’s the way it works.

“You have to work as a front pair, and sometimes being in the box you have to think about yourself to make space. Luckily, I found enough space to turn and finish.”

Doolan was surprised that the visitors didn’t pose more of a physical challenge on Saturday, with the Jags players keyed up for a battle.

Instead, the home side were allowed to impose themselves on Ian Cathro’s disjointed team, and Doolan believes that was a central reason for their comfortable victory.

“The way the game went it seemed as if it could turn that way but it never panned out, it was only the odd tackle here or there,” he said.

“We didn’t focus on Hearts, we were only thinking about ourselves, but you normally know what you’re getting off them – big, physical teams that try to dominate the game.

“From that regard, I thought we stood up well today, because they do still have a lot of big players out there, but I thought we imposed our shape onto them quicker than they did to us.”

The result leaves Hearts manager Ian Cathro under pressure after picking up just four wins from his 14 games in charge.

But Doolan had some words of solace for the young coach, pointing to the success of his own manager as the perfect example of what can be achieved with a little patience.

He said: “I don’t think it’s the way to go just to have a revolving door and bring people in and out quickly, sometimes it takes a manager time to settle, get his own players in and establish himself.

“We’ve done that with our manager, and thankfully we’re now seeing the benefits of that.”