PARTICK THISTLE paid the penalty as Aberdeen were handed all three points at Firhill.

In a game of few chances, one goal was all it took for the Dons as Alan Archibald's side struggled to find their form and didn't find the target.

It was against Aberdeen that Thistle claimed their first Firhill win of last season as they finally burst their home hoodoo in February, and they went into this clash determined to end their wait for back-to-back top-flight triumphs.

But in a low-key encounter, the talking point on the half- hour mark was the decisive moment as Derek McInnes's side emerged with a 1-0 win.

Paul Gallacher, deputising for Scott Fox after he was ruled out through illness, had to be alert to deny Adam Rooney and save a Niall McGinn free-kick in the opening stages.

When he reacted well to get a hand on Cammy Smith's ball back into the box after Thistle cleared their lines from a corner, the Jags appealed that David Goodwillie was in an offside position.

But it was to the corner flag where whistler Willie Collum pointed and he was soon blowing for a penalty after Mark Reynolds' header hit Abdul Osman's arm at point-blank range.

Rooney made no mistake from 12 yards, the Thistle fans making their anger known as Aberdeen celebrated and took control of the game.

Gallacher said: "Offside, it's simple. He's in the middle of the goal and the ball's bouncing so I feel he's offside and I think the referee agreed with me from a footballing point of view that my argument was correct.

"But from the laws of the game he's fine because he's not moved. I feel he motioned and had a slight dip of his head, it's not put me off. I'm claiming the fact he's in an offside position and the ball is coming directly over his head, so he should be offside, he's interfering with play in my eyes.

"He's in my eyeline, he's an obstruction. I can see the ball clearly but I'm waiting for that touch from Goodwillie, which all strikers normally do but he's been cute and made a movement with his head.

"I've saved it but we need to move on to the next scenario which was the corner coming in and we've been unfortunate with the handball."

Having seen his side spurn their only real chance when James Craigen fired wide of target early on, it didn't take long for Archibald to turn to his bench in search of a spark after the break, with Gary Fraser taking over from the 23-year-old in the middle of the park.

Kallum Higginbotham and Ryan Stevenson soon followed to give the Jags more firepower in the final third, but the hosts were still shot-shy and never worked keeper Scott Brown.

At the other end, Gallacher was making the most of his return to action, the keeper pulling off a terrific stop to block Rooney's goal-bound header.

With just 10 minutes left, Thistle should have got the equaliser they so desperately wanted but Stuart Bannigan headed wide from yards out after meeting Stevenson's teasing cross from the left.

When Osman headed over from a promising position late on, Thistle's last chance was gone as successive wins again evaded them.

Boss Archibald said: "We had two good chances and we should have taken them. We didn't work the goalie hard enough.

"When you create two chances like that inside the six-yard box you have got to take them."