Wednesday 5 April 2017 23:23, UK
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said he rested players against Partick with this month's Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers in mind.
The Hoops boss made five changes to the side which clinched the Premiership title against Hearts on Sunday and saw them held to a 1-1 draw in Parkhead.
Scotland internationals Scott Brown, Kieran Tierney, James Forrest and Stuart Armstrong were rested - the latter came on after the break - along with Dedryck Boyata.
Scott Sinclair, who scored a hat-trick in the 5-0 win at Tynecastle, opened the scoring early in the second half but after Thistle striker Ade Azeez levelled, the Hoops forward had a penalty saved by Jags keeper Tomas Cerny.
Rodgers, pleased to see midfielder Tom Rogic return as a second-half substitute having been out since December after suffering an ankle injury, is now working towards the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final against the Ibrox men later in the month.
He said: "After the weekend our next peak is the semi-final. So that's what we are building towards.
"This is why I needed to make the changes tonight. If I didn't make them tonight and I made them against Kilmarnock, and then we are building into the Ross County game and then the Rangers games.
"It might mean some players who are asked to play in the Rangers game, if they played tonight then were rested against Kilmarnock they would maybe have got one game in 18 days.
"You're always trying to gauge the momentum of your team and I thought this was the game to make the changes.
"But over the course of the next couple of games the team will be pretty stable to give us that momentum to hopefully arrive in a peak condition for the semi-final."
Celtic remain unbeaten domestically this season, winning 28 and drawing three of their 31 league games.
Rodgers said: "I thought it was probably a fair result in the end. I was actually really pleased believe it or not.
"We've come back from Sunday, how well we played, we clinched the title...so to come into this game and make a number of changes so players get game-time, and you are playing against the second form team in Scotland, along with Aberdeen.
"So we knew it was going to be a difficult game for us."
Thistle picked up their first point at Celtic Park since 1994 and manager Alan Archibald said: "I was delighted for Tomas Cerny saving the penalty. The fingers were pointed at him at Rugby Park when he made a mistake a few weeks ago against Kilmarnock.
"But he has saved us a number of times and I'm glad he put that to bed tonight because it's been preying on his mind a bit."
