The fact that the debate over whether Ross Callachan’s equaliser for Hearts against Partick Thistle on Saturday was in or not has yet to be definitively put to bed tells its own story.

The gut instinct of the majority inside the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill seemed to be that the whole ball wasn’t over the line, but there were two people who were perhaps best-placed to make the call.

One was Thistle defender Danny Devine, who made the valiant attempt to stretch and head the ball away, the other was assistant referee Joseph Lawson.

The former insists that the ball wasn’t in, and the latter thought it was. Unfortunately for the Jags, only one of those opinions counted on the day, and they remain without a win after seven league games.

“At the time, I didn’t think it was a goal, and I still don’t think it was,” said Devine. “The linesman must have been the one who gave it.

“I need to see it from another angle. I saw it on the laptop but you can’t really tell.

“[But] there’s no way that the whole of the ball was over the line, but you can’t do anything about it and you have to move on.”

Despite the nature of Hearts equalising goal being tough to take for Thistle, a draw was probably about right after the home side dominated the first-half and the visitors dominated the second for the most part.

And despite the monkey of that first league victory still clinging on to the backs of the Jags players, Devine saw enough in the three draws earned in regulation time in the last week to give him plenty of encouragement. 

“It’s been a tough week for the whole team with playing extra time in midweek too,” he said. “We had to dig deep and you can see that we were a wee bit leggy towards the end.

“We’ve had three tough games against three top sides and it’s been encouraging for us. I think in all three games we’ve done ourselves justice.

“We can’t be too angry about how the week has gone, we just have to move on to the next game.”

And that next game comes against Motherwell at Fir Park next week, which looks another tricky fixture for Thistle given the Steelmen’s strong start to the season.

Despite their narrow loss to Aberdeen, Stephen Robinson’s men sit comfortably in mid-table and have reached the semi-finals of the Betfred Cup.

Jags boss Alan Archibald is making sure though that his men make the trip to Lanarkshire in a positive frame of mind.

“The manager has told us to keep our heads up,” he said. “Obviousy Motherwell are in good form but we know that we can beat anyone on our day.”

With Blair Spittal in the Thistle side, they will always have a chance. The former Dundee United man has been on fire since his move to Maryhill and bagged his sixth goal of the season against Hearts on Saturday.

Devine added:“Blair has been absolutely outstanding since he’s come to the club. I really like him as a player, he’s tidy, can deliver a ball and he brings goals as well.”