Docherty delighted to break duck

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Stephen O’Donnell looked to have earned Partick all three points when he opened the scoring in the 72nd minute but Docherty, 18, headed in a corner five minutes from time to snatch a share of the spoils.

Docherty said afterwards: “My dad says to me (I will score) quite a lot but today in particular he said ‘I have a feeling Greg you are going to score’.

“When I was walking off at the end I looked up and saw him, my mum and sister, it was a special moment that I will always remember.

“It makes it better that it was the equaliser. I am not renowned for scoring headers. I am usually told to defend when we have corners.

“I saw it come over and stuck my head on it and when it went in it was a great feeling.

“But a few of the boys have already given me stick, saying I shut my eyes, had my head down, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Less pleasing for Hamilton was the loss of defender Michael Devlin to a nasty-looking injury in the first half – but player-manager Martin Canning refused to blame the state of the pitch.

Canning said: “We spoke to the groundsman about why the pitch wasn’t watered as when it’s wet we play our best football.

“The groundsman told us there was rain expected in the afternoon but it didn’t materialise. When the pitch is sticky like it was today then it’s something we worry about with regards to injury.

“That said, I don’t think Michael’s injury was anything to do with the pitch, it wasn’t a twist caused by the pitch.

“Michael has planted his leg and felt something go but we will get him scanned and deal with it.”

Partick manager Alan Archibald, who saw Ryan Stevenson also forced off by injury, added: “There wasn’t a lot of quality and the two injuries in the first half didn’t help much because it was a stop-start affair.

“Ryan Stevenson’s studs got caught in the turf and his knee locked but we’re hoping that it isn’t too bad.

“The medical team isn’t too worried at the moment but we’ll assess it over the weekend. How big a part did the surface play? I don’t know but it doesn’t help. I’m more concerned about it stopping you playing.

“We train on it a lot and when it’s wet, it’s good. But, when it dries out, it makes it hard to pass the ball.”