The Thistle Archive

22-Mar-2022, bbc.com

Dunfermline Athletic climbed off the foot of the Scottish Championship by roaring back to beat Partick Thistle. The hosts fell behind to Ross Docherty's fine early curler, but soon responded with three first-half goals. Lewis Mayo spooned into his own net, before Matthew Todd and Josh Edwards were teed up by Dom Thomas. It was Thomas who sealed Dunfermline's first win in seven games late on, moving them three points clear of Queen of the South, while Thistle sit fourth. This was a damaging third straight defeat for Ian McCall's men, three days after the 4-0 trouncing dished out by Hamilton Academical, and four before travelling to league leaders Kilmarnock.

They were motoring along so well early in the game, when Edwards' misplaced header allowed them to steal in behind the home defence, and Scott Tiffoney teed up captain Docherty to bend delightfully beyond Deniz Mehmet. Their lead evaporated five minutes later, the first of a triple gut-punch delivered by John Hughes' reinvigorated troops. Todd's cross was shanked hideously into the Thistle net by Mayo. Then Thomas grabbed things by the scruff, proving a constant pest down the left flank. His bamboozling footwork and terrific cross was expertly placed on to the head of Todd, who thundered home. Thomas was as it again soon after, cutting back for Edwards to drive in the third. And it should have been 4-1 before the interval when Steven Lawless saw his deflected shot held by Jamie Sneddon at the second attempt.

The new half was less incident-packed, though Kevin O'Hara was booked for diving when the impressive striker hit the deck in the away box. Thomas put the icing on a juicy Dunfermline cake late on, burning away on the counter and fizzing a left-foot howitzer through Sneddon. A stoppage-time injury to Lawless was the only blight on the Fife side's evening, and they almost bagged a fifth at the death, Nikolay Todorov rounding Sneddon but trundling too far wide to direct his shot on target.

Dunfermline Athletic John Hughes:

It's not just tonight, it's been a long time coming, a long time before this. 4-1, we've always said that we'll score goals, and tonight, they've went in. The difference tonight was our crossing was very very good, and I felt in the first half, our passing was really, really good in terms of just cutting it in. As I say, when you score the goals, it gives you a hand. I'm delighted. At this football club, since I've come, from the boardroom right down, there's a real, collective togetherness, and everybody wanting the same thing, the same objective. We're all on the same path. We know where we are. We're not getting carried away with the result tonight, we know where we are. We know the consequences, we have to win football matches,but I just feel it. Right from the top, there's a real collective spirit and we're all helping each other. I think the boys have signed up for that and the environment which we're trying to create. When you give the fans that entertainment, then it's a good place to be. I keep saying that it's difficult when you feel that you're doing a lot of things right in the games, and it's been like that for a while now. You need to keep believing in the process, what we're doing and the philosophy, carry on what we have been doing.

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall:

The first goal was an own goal; Lewis' position was really good, and he's just got to clear it, but Dunfermline deserved to win. Simple as that. There was nothing in the game second half but we didn't make a chance. We did at the end of the first half, I thought the last 10 minutes. The only plus point, we got (Scott) Tiffoney 75 minutes, and he came through it fine, but there aren't many plus points. But, I've got to say, let's have a bit of perspective here. We're chasing promotion through the play-offs; Dunfermline, a similar sized club, are trying to stop going down. A wee bit of perspective is maybe needed. I think the players have been fantastic. Is it a coincidence that three, certainly two, very poor results have come at the end of 10, 11 games? I don't know. That's for other people to decide. I thought we started the game really well, scored a goal, and then made a mistake. The first half, apart from the last 10 minutes, it was just littered with mistakes from us, in dangerous areas. Dunfermline really deserved to win. Whether it was 4-1, I'm not so sure, but they deserved to win.

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HAMMERED AGAIN

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