The Jags led 3-0 on aggregate with around 20 minutes of the second-leg at the Global Energy Stadium remaining. They had taken a one-goal lead on the day through Aidan Fitzpatrick but the game swung when the hosts were awarded a penalty for handball, leading to two goals in the space of a minute.

"I'm devastated as you would imagine,” Doolan said. “I'm gutted for everyone to be honest because we put so much into the games. Half the country was probably behind us, not just Partick Thistle fans. I felt we put ourselves in the best possible position but when it goes to penalty kicks it is a lottery.

"Football is cruel and I know it's cruel but to go out on penalty kicks is worse because you feel as if you were so close. I'm just devastated for everyone because the work that goes on behind the scenes, the work the players have put in. I think they can be proud of that. I genuinely feel they can be proud of what they have accomplished. We've had a taste of what you could possibly achieve. Hopefully we can regroup and come back stronger.”

Doolan, who hailed the "phenomenal" travelling support of more than 2,000, felt the Jags should have had a “blatant penalty” when Nick Walsh was advised by VAR to look at a first-half incident but then stuck with his original decision. However, the Thistle boss didn't want to “make excuses just on VAR".

“I feel like you would always be picking on VAR when we lost control of the game at times, 5-10 minutes when they score really quickly," he said. “We could have done better, I felt.

"Even in extra-time we had a couple of chances which we could have scored and I was confident we would have taken one of them. It wasn't to be, it just wasn't our day.

"Overall we can be proud of what we can achieve.I think we have shown we are a Premiership club with the fan base, the infrastructure. We were just so close, we just didn't get it over the line.”

What Kris Doolan had to say after Partick Thistle's "cruel" play-off loss to Ross County

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