Brian Graham says his Partick Thistle squad simply is not fit enough after the Jags let a one-goal lead slip against Airdrieonians.

Graham and Mark Wilson led the side for the first time on Saturday since being unveiled as the interim management team earlier in the week, with the former opening the scoring during the first half against Rhys McCabe’s struggling side.

The Jags couldn’t see the win through though, and had little answer to Ben Wilson’s leveller after the break as the contest finished 1-1.

“There were a few times where obviously decision-making has probably killed us,” Graham explained. “But the principles of what we were after in the first half was clearly there to see.

“But then I think second half, you can see we tire and I think it's been an issue. The full season we're not fit enough and I thought the last 20 minutes we were on our feet.”

He continued: “I thought we'd get a real reaction out of the players, especially first half, and there was a lot of things going right but there was times where I felt we rushed it.

“Listen, Rome wasn’t built in a day. We had one session to try and prepare them in the way we wanted them to play on Thursday because obviously you can't do too much on a Friday the day before the game. You need to keep them fresh so we had one proper training session on the shape that we wanted to play today.

“It's just bravery on the ball at times, especially second half, but I think that was down to our fitness. I think some of them were knackered when we had a good 20 minutes to go.”

Graham said in the build-up to the Airdrie game that he wanted the players to work harder, and the 37-year-old was satisfied in that regard. But raising the players’ fitness to the point where they can last 90 minutes will take time – something that is in short supply at this time of the season.

“I thought you'd seen that [improved work-rate] in abundance in the first half but then you see in the second half they were knackered,” Graham noted. “But that's your lack of fitness and we need to address that.

“We know it's the tail end of the season, we should be fit but listen, for one reason or another, we're not up to real fitness and we've got to try and address that.

“It takes a few weeks. The standards in training on Tuesday were great. The work rate from them on Tuesday, the data showed that that was the hardest session we've had all season - and it's February.

“So we need to continue to work them hard but also we need to be cautious because we need to keep them fresh for a Saturday. So it's trying to find that balance. That's the difficult part when you're at this late end of the season. So there's a few things that need corrected but that will take time.”

Graham also felt his side were denied a stonewall penalty in the second half when Kyle Turner rounded Airdrie keeper Kieran Wright before tumbling to the ground, only for referee David Dickinson – positioned just a few yards away – to wave play on.

The Thistle skipper added: “There's a big key moment in the second half Kyle Turner gets wiped out by the goalkeeper. I asked the referee why it wasn't a penalty and he said he's going away from goal. I said it doesn't matter, he gets there first then gets wiped out, it's a stonewall penalty kick. I can't believe it's not been given.”