Alan Archibald was left gutted as he watched Partick Thistle throw away a lead late on to lose to Rangers at Firhill for the second time this season, and he has told his players to toughen up if they want to move forward as a club.

The Jags were ahead with just seven minutes remaining after Kris Doolan headed home early on, but they somehow conspired to end up empty-handed after a last-gasp double salvo from the visitors.

The Thistle gaffer is sick and tired of watching his players lose late goals, an old failing that he thought had been eradicated before it reared its ugly head yet again yesterday afternoon.

And he has laid out in no uncertain terms that he expects his players to do much better, even though he understands that they are feeling the effects of a gruelling campaign.

“It was brutal to be honest, it’s hard to take,” Archibald said.

“We put a lot into the performance. The first 15 minutes was a bit frantic, but once we got the goal we settled down and we create a couple of good opportunities that we should have done better with.

“We thought we had got rid of this Achilles heel of losing late goals but obviously not. We turned it around after Christmas but now it is started to creep in again.

“The game was there for the taking today and I think we had the better chances.

“They didn’t really cut us open, the first goal came from a long ball and that’s not about tactics, they just have to deal with it.

“The late goal at the end was when we looked tired, because we didn’t defend the cross and then we’ve got to go and win the header.

“We had three centre-halves in there at the time, go and win your headers, that’s all you are asked to do.

“I don’t think the November game had anything to do with it, we just looked physically and mentally tired today.

“We’ve got to be stronger, and if we want to move forward as a club, we’ve got to get rid of that if we’ve got aspirations to be top six next year or stay away from the bottom.

“We’ve lost so many late goals and even if we cut that in half we would be above Hearts probably.

“We know we have to be ruthless, we’re well aware of that, and that’s what got us top six. We were scoring goals at the right times and defending properly, and we never did that today.

“We got ahead, but we have to see games out and manage them better than we did.”

The manner of the Rangers equaliser through Barrie McKay and the Thistle players’ reaction to it were particularly galling aspects of the afternoon for Archibald to handle.

His players had looked to be coasting to three points at that stage, but they will finish the season as the only side not to take points from Rangers in the Premiership after failing to handle being pegged back.

“I thought we were comfortable,” he said. “Rangers made a number of changes in the second half, but all they did was throw more bodies forward and we dealt with that.

“We got undone by a long kick out from the goalkeeper, and we don’t deal with the first ball up.

“I thought our reaction after that was poor. I thought we were mentally weak today.

“We looked tired and we didn’t know how to go after the game after that. We did nothing.

“Instead of going after the game or seeing the game out at one-one, we got caught in-between I thought.”