Hamilton Accies suffered a fourth defeat on the spin as Championship leaders Partick Thistle inflicted more misery on the struggling South Lanarkshire side.
It was a spirited display from Accies following last week's 5-0 thrashing at Morton, but the Jags still walked away with all three points thanks to strikes from Brian Graham and substitute Scott Tiffoney, either side of Andy Ryan's leveller for Accies early in the second half.
Accies threw everything at it late on and Ryan was denied a last-gasp equaliser by a superb save from Jamie Sneddon.
John Rankin's men have now conceded 11 goals in their last four outings and, with just one win in 10 league games, that form leaves them rock bottom of the Championship standings on goal difference from Arbroath, who they play next weekend in a huge clash.
Accies made three changes from their embarassing 5-0 defeat at Morton last week, as John-Pierre Tiehi, Lewis Smith and Ryan One all dropped to the bench to be replaced by Andy Ryan, Dario Zanatta and Johnny Ngandu.
Partick also made three alterations from their last outing - a 1-0 defeat at Inverness - with Jamie Sneddon replacing David Mitchell in goal, while Cole McKinnon came in for Scott Tiffoney and Aidan Fitzpatrick came in for the suspended Kyle Turner.
The hosts went into the clash having dropped to the bottom of the division on Friday night following Arbroath's 1-1 draw at Queen's Park, which lifted Lichties above Accies on goal difference.
Rankin's men showed some early fight in the first 10 minutes of the game as they restricted Partick to very little and threatened to get in behind the visitors' defence.
Eventually they found a way through in the 13th minute and they should have taken the lead. Ngandu played a neat one-two with Scott Martin on the edge of the box and it put the striker one-on-one with Sneddon, but the Jags keeper made a superb stop from close range to deny the hosts an opener.
Two minutes later the Jags themselves missed a glaring opportunity when Kevin Holt headed the ball off the post from Steven Lawless' cross and Cole McKinnon then saw his strike on the rebound cleared off the line.
Accies went agonisingly close again in the 20th minute when Ryan showed his strength to outmuscle Aaron Muirhead to a bouncing ball on the edge of the box. The striker saw Sneddon off his line but the attempted lob landed millimetres wide of the far corner and Thistle breathed a sigh of relief.
And that came back to bite Accies in the 33rd minute when Thistle landed the breakthrough goal. Aidan Fitzpatrick swung in a free-kick towards the back post and when Muirhead hedaed the ball back across goal, Graham volleyed home from close range to beat Ryan Fulton.
Muirhead almost turned the ball into his own net moments later when defending Steve Lawson's corner. Thankfully for Thistle, his header drifted narrowly wide of the target and out for a corner which came to nothing for Accies.
Eight minutes into the second half Accies hauled themselves level when a ball into the box found Dan O'Reilly and his effor towards the back post was hammered into the net by Ryan.
Partick thought they had regained the lead in their next attack when McKinnon's curling strike headed towards the top corner. The visiting support started cheering, but McKinnon's effort had infact found the side netting.
Accies almost turned the game on its head in 58 minutes when Ngandu's pass across the face of goal looked set to pick out the inrushing Andy Winter, but Harry Milne made a superb last-ditch sliding tackle to deny him.
Partick turned to their bench with the introduction of Tiffoney for Fitzpatrick and Ian McCall's substitute made a quick impact to fire his side back into the lead. A short corner was worked out to him by Ross Docherty on the edge of the box and he unleashed a low, swerving strike through a sea of bodies into the bottom corner.
It almost got worse for Accies when quick-thinking Kevin Holt tried to catch Ryan Fulton off his line with a strike from halfway, but the Accies keeper retreated well to make a vital save on his line.
Another Jags substitute almost brought instant dividends for the visitors as Anton Dowds, just on for Graham, burst into the box and fired a low drive narrowly wide of Fulton's far post going into the final 10 minutes.
Accies were pushing hard for another equaliser and in the 83rd minute Ryan created space for a shot inside the box, but he blazed over from 12 yards under pressure.
In the 89th minute substitute Ryan One did superbly to creat space for a cross and clip the ball to the front post for Ryan. His point-blank header looked certain to deliver an equaliser, but Sneddon's instinctive stop somehow denied him and made sure the points went back to Maryhill.
Accies are back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a rearranged clash.
HAMILTON: Fulton, Doyle, Easton, Shiels, O'Reilly, Martin (L Smith 69), Ngandu (One 87), Zanatta (Tiehi '65), Lawson, Ryan, Winter.
Scorers: Ryan 53
Bookings: O'Reilly, Martin
Subs not used: J Smith, Owens, Newbury, One, Brown, Virtanen, Mimnaugh.
PARTICK: Sneddon, Muirhead, Milne, McMillan, Holt, Docherty, Bannigan (Hodson 88), Lawless (Smith 78), McKinnon, Fitzpatrick (Tiffoney 58), Graham (Dowds 78).
Scorers: Graham 33, Tiffoney 64
Bookings: Docherty, Holt
Subs not used: McCready, Akinola, Stanway, Weston, Mullen.
Ref: Barry Cook
HT: 0-1
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
