One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Dunfermline Athletic v Partick Thistle
Irn-Bru Scottish League 1st Division
Saturday14th March 2009 15.00
East End Park
Reporter: Calum Stewart
Referee: David Somers

Attendance: 2,736

It has always been a problem particular to Partick Thistle fans, if you believe in lazy stereotyping, that the conclusion to the football season inevitably coincides with the sharp end of the academic calendar. So it was that three years ago I found myself dancing on the pitch at Peterhead only 24 hours before my first exam. Three years on, not much has changed as once again my heart ruled my head and a dissertation in disarray was left to stew as I made another trip based, once again, far more on hope than expectation.

Our last encounter with Dunfermline ended on a sour note and post match analysis afterwards saw far more glances being cast over our shoulder at the trapdoor to the abyss as title ambitions and the gold paved road ahead to the promised land of the SPL were abandoned for another year. Since then the Jags have convinced us to cast our eyes upwards once again before showing us the error of our ways last weekend, a game before which I jokingly remarked that I hadn’t been so confident since we played Albion Rovers at home, only to reignite that faint hope of promotion midweek.

Thistle have had a terrible run at East End Park, and that’s putting it mildly. Thus it is has become one of the grounds (alongside another we must visit in the very near future) where the normally stellar travelling support decides that an afternoon of weeding seems like quite the appealing activity. So when more than 3 men and a dug show up, you know there is something to play for. With St. Johnstone thus far drawing their way to the title, East End Park today hosted two teams fighting for the right to pursue a team that have developed something of a reputation for bottle crashing.

 That I was here at East End Park at all owed much to a man who a short while ago I was counselling myself to give time to, who needed time and who was only being thrown in at the deep end due to a lack of alternatives. Eight league games on and even the most optimistic expectations of Kris Doolan have surely been exceeded, the only problem being these expectations are now being re-calculated and anything less than a game winning international debut in Amsterdam will be a disappointment.

After the midweek success, Thistle again lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Paton coming in for Chaplain in an otherwise unchanged side. Previous encounters between the two sides this season(at Firhill at least) had been entertaining affairs, a rarity in such a cut-throat division, but the combination of the wind, pitch and the players on said pitch struggled to bring this one under control as the first half saw pass after pass float carefree into the stands. All the early action was in front of Jonny Tuffey’s goal as the hosts, minus their regular strikerforce of Kirk and Bayne, made a bright start in blustery conditions. Three minutes in David Graham was given time to run at the Jags defence before unleashing a  fierce drive which  Tuffey parried in front of goal where Robertson swept it away form danger.

Dunfermline continued to press as Thistle, not helped by some woeful distribution from Archibald, struggled to hold on to the ball, launching the ball high into the onrushing wind. On twelve minutes another high ball into the Jags box came off the head of Archibald and landed sweetly for Mole only for his volley to find the side netting with Tuffey struggling. The pressure on the Thistle goal continued as Archibald and Robertson both had to look sharp to block efforts from Mole and Glass on twelve minutes. Minutes later a ball over the top gave Phinn time in the Jags box but his cutback was dragged wide from a good position by Graham.

Thistle’s first foray of any sort into Pars territory came on 15 minutes as the Jags worked the ball wide to Paul Paton, but his cross ballooned high into the stand. Despite a disappointing first venture, a similar approach paid dividends for Thistle four minutes later. Harkins, Doolan and Akins linked well and found David Rowson, who again found Paton in space down the right. Paton turned McCann well and Harkins reacted first to his deflected cross, beating Wilson’s outstretched leg to the ball before being felled. Somers pointed to the spot and as we have come to expect Harkins (not Akins as the BBC reported) found his favoured bottom left corner to give the Jags a scarcely deserved lead.

With the Jags fans lifted as a result, Thistle began to retain possession with a little more confidence but Dunfermline continued to have the better of the first half. Mole worked some space down the right and his cross came to Phinn at the edge of the box, whose shot looped off David Rowson’s outstretched foot and came off the top of the Thistle bar with Tuffey stranded. Bell was next up to try his luck from distance with a volley that landed on the top of Tuffey’s net.

Thistle finally managed to create something of a chance on the half hour and predictably it came in Route 1 style as Tuffey’s goal kick was flicked on by Akins towards Doolan who did well to beat Gallacher to the ball but couldn’t steer it past the Dunfermline number one. Relieved to have overcome the early pressure, Thistle continued to press with Harkins shooting high and wide from a Doolan layoff before the latter couldn’t quite get on the end of a long Archibald free kick. Rory Loy, the talented Rangers loanee (honestly) replaced the injured Bell and began to offer a more serious threat down the Pars right.

The last of the first half belonged again to Dunfermline with Glass and Mole exchanging passes well on the edge of the box but Paton intervened brilliantly to prevent Glass from striking the ball only for Harkins to waste a good opportunity to counter with a terrible pass wide. The first half drew to a close with Tuffey, his every move being vocally supported by the impressive travelling support, rising high to collect another poor corner from Glass.

News of the latest score from Almondvale filtering through, the half time bridies must have tasted even better than usual, and it seemed to galvanise Thistle who started the second half the better, with a Twaddle cross sitting up nicely for Paton at the back post but his volley was constantly rising. Twaddle in particular was enjoying the benefit of some space on the left and went on a stunning run from his own half, fully 70 or 80 yards,  turning two defenders inside out and driving into the Pars box where his cutback found Doolan who elected to lay off McKeown for a weak effort rather than shooting himself.

Akins continued to make a nuisance of himself up front, winning ball after ball in the air, only for his teammates, who are presumably not used such an outcome, failing to latch on. Dunfermline made a second change with Muirhead replacing the ineffective Burke and Loy swapping places with Graham upfront as Dunfermline sought to regain control of the game, and minutes later Muirhead found Glass on the edge of the box but McKeown did well to block his shot.  On sixty seven minutes Dunfermline had the ball in the back of the net but Phinn was offside in an offside position when he tapped into the empty net after Graham’s effort had come back off the bar, although the furious reaction of the Dunfermline players suggested otherwise.

Donnelly came on for an exhausted Akins who had given a shift Gerry Collins would have been proud of up front, and his composure on the ball brought more confidence to the Thistle side. Minutes after coming on he fed Paton on the right and his cross was fired narrowly wide on the half volley by Harkins from the edge of the box. McKeown made way for McKinlay as McCall sought to bring back some of the physicality that left with Akins. On seventy two minutes Robertson had to look sharp again to hook the ball away with Loy threatening to break through.

Dunfermline started to run out of ideas, without Bayne and Kirk their balls into the box were being dealt with comfortably by Archibald and Robertson, and Thistle pressed for a game killing second, with McKinlay shooting weakly at Gallacher from the edge of the box after good build up work and Doolan firing just over from the angle minutes later. Dunfermline began to go all out to find the goal they needed to save their season and Tuffey was out exceptionally quickly to smother at the feet of Mole as he looked poised to pounce. The best chance of the closing minutes however fell to Thistle as Donnelly fed Harkins on the counter attack and he beat his man before cutting the ball back through the pack to Paul Paton at the back post who chose to loop a cross back towards Harkins when testing Gallcher seemed the obvious option.

As the minutes closed out Dunfermline struggled to cut through the well organised Jags rearguard and a looped header at Tuffey elicited cheers that should have signalled the clinching of the three points. Instead Rowson contrived to concede possession on the halfway line and Dunfermline mounted one final attack, from which Graham’s shot was almost spilled by Tuffey but gathered at the second attempt.

The reaction from fans and players alike both in the second half performance and at the full time whistle showed a team that is really starting to believe that, despite every setback, we really can win this league. Group hugs all round in the centre circle were followed by a roar from the travelling support as the latest scores were revealed. Having experience of such things before, Jags fans rushed for cars and radios to confirm that the title race was well and truly on.

A first victory at East End Park in twenty six years and, although we were extremely lucky to escape the first half unscathed the second half performance was for the most part assured and controlling. Tuffey had very few genuine saves to make even if the bar had to help him out a couple of times, and Archibald and Robertson were excellent throughout. Not what you would call a deserved victory over the 90 minutes, but the second half performance displayed today, holding resolutely to a fortuitous half time lead, may well be one we look back on as the performance of a Championship winning team.
Man of the Match: John Robertson – Twaddle was excellent and seems to get forward more as a left back than he did as a wing back, his run early in the second half truly was a joy to behold, but once again Robertson proved his value to the team, not putting a single foot wrong in the 90 minutes. It’s always dangerous to predict man of the match after 30 minutes, but Robertson lived up to such hopes and as one of the few in red and yellow to excel in the first half as well as the second, he edges Twaddle for man of the match.

Dunfermline: Gallacher, Scott Thomson, Wilson, Phinn, Shields, McCann, Bell (Loy 33), Glass, Holmes, Graham, Burke (Muirhead 58).
Players not used: Ross, Willis, Reidford.

Thistle: Tuffey, Storey, Twaddle, Paton, John Robertson, Archibald, McKeown (McKinlay 72), Rowson, Akins, Doolan, Harkins (Donnelly 68).
Players not used:  Chaplain, Maxwell, Hinchcliffe.

Scorers: Harkins 19 pen.

Attendance: 2,736

Referee: David Somers
Assistants: Brian McGarry  Brian Templeton