One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Dunfermline 1 - 0 Partick Thistle Scottish League First Division
18 October 2008  East End Park 3.00 pm.
Reporter: Partick the Dog (with assistance from Wee Honk)
Scorers: Dunfermline : Kirk 36 minutes.
Attendance: 3,242

It was another grim and oft-repeated episode of East Enders as Thistle yet again departed scoreless and pointless from Dunfermline’s East End Park, a 36th minute strike from Andy Kirk being enough to secure the win for the home team.

What is the capital of Scotland? The answer is of course “S”, but if you had been asking the question in the thirteenth century, the answer would have been “Dunfermline”. This is the burial place of Robert the Bruce, the birth place of singer Barbara Dickson and my mother (two different people, I hasten to add), and the place where Ian McCall rose to prominence as a player and Dick Campbell rose to prominence as a manager.

The Kingdom of Fife was invaded by an unprecedented number of tall clean-shaven 17 year olds, all eager to take advantage of the £1 entry fee for under 18s. We picked our way through the puddles and potholes (guaranteed to make a dog’s paws dirty) under the lee of the ominous graveyard, to the North East Stand. This is not the commanding East Stand at the end of the ground where we were stationed for the Scottish Cup quarter final of evil Smoking Stephen Simmons memory, but a restricted view and unattractive side pocket, for which charging £16 to adults (and dogs) is a disgrace.

The last time Thistle took the lead at East End Park led the evergreen James Grady to pick his spot to lie down on the ground to avoid being burned by the plastic pitch, and the 17 year olds would have been babes in arms, and Wee Honk had not even been thought of, when Thistle recorded their last victory in 1993. Pars mascot Sammy the Tammy did his best to cheer us up with his mildly amusing pre-match routine. First he was Kris Boyd throwing his toys out of the pram and then he was Chris Iwelomu, contriving to miss from 2 feet.

Jonny Tuffey returned from international duty to reclaim his place in goal and Gary Harkins was back after suspension. Paul Paton resumed his tenuous hold on the right wingback slot and Scott Chaplain got the nod over Stephen McKeown in the endless battle to be the third midfielder. Another new attacking pairing of Kevin McKinlay and Simon Donnelly was tried out while Liam Buchanan loomed large on the bench, accompanied by Stevie (Imagine) Lennon. Damon Gray was nowhere to be seen, but the advert for David Gray Salons indicated that he may have sneaked off for a quick cut and blow dry.

The usual kick off routine was utilised (why can we not just keep the ball?) and Mark Twaddle at least won the first header before possession was tamely surrendered. King Kevin was showing up well in attack, glancing a header from an Ian Maxwell cross just wide of the post. McKinlay, although not a natural goal scorer and possessed of a poor first touch, is a reasonable target man and a willing runner into the corners. He kept the Dunfermline defenders well occupied, although Simon Donnelly was perhaps not the best partner for feeding off his flick ons and space creation.

After a fairly even initial 20 minutes, Dunfermline began to assume control. Kevin Harper, despite what anyone may think of media speculation regarding his personal life, is still a gifted and pacey player, and his ability to move off either foot (in contrast to the onefootedness of players like Paton and McKinlay) was posing problems. Stephen Glass was breaking and Nicky Phinn was swimming through the midfield regularly and setting up various opportunities. However, Thistle were holding out comfortably enough and any shots were directed or deflected wide.

Tuffey was inspiring confidence by catching and kicking well and generally commanding his box, although both he and his defensive colleagues must work harder at being available for roll outs rather than hoofs up the park. In contrast Paul Gallacher in the Dunfermline goal, the man who prevented Kenny Arthur being capped and who generally plays well against us, had a shaky game and dropped the ball on several occasions. The goal machine that is Ian Maxwell almost caught him out with a cross reminiscent of his goal against Dundee.

This sparked Thistle’s best period of the first half as Gary Harkins burst into life with two tremendous runs into the right side of the Dunfermline box, skipping past players in McQuadelike motion. On the first occasion, the gap briefly opened for a shot which cannoned off a defender, and the next time his cross picked out Twaddle who headed wide.

Having done his work for the first half, Harkins joined Scott Chaplain and Simon Donnelly in a game of “Hide Behind the Stanchion” as they all disappeared from this commentator’s view, leaving David Rowson to run about the midfield by himself.

Thistle then remembered that Dunfermline was the home town of the world famous philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and that it was only right and proper that the team should honour his memory with a generous gift. Nicky Phinn is a decent player, but does not have the straightline speed of his countrymen Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen. However, when he pushed the ball past Ian Maxwell into the righthand side of the Thistle 6 yard box, we watched aghast as Phinn played Red Rum to Maxwell’s Crisp, eating up the ground to get there first and square the ball via a deflection along the 6 yard line from where Andy Kirk, with the aid of another deflection was able to scramble the ball in.

It was a cheap scruffy goal of the type that Scott “Trigger” McLean used to score in Shedloads. But credit Kirk with having the Enterprise (think about it) to be in the right place at the right time and to put the ball in the net before anyone had time to say “Beam me up, Scottie”.

Rather than display determination to hunt for an equaliser, Thistle let this reverse knock their confidence and were on the back foot for the next period. Kevin Harper set up Graham Bayne who shot wide. Next time Harper went for goal himself with a curling shot which looked netbound before Jonny Tuffey reached out a hand to touch it wide-an international class save. McKinlay heading over from a Paul Paton cross was the last action of a dull first half.

Halftime was enlivened by five a side games involving local children (Wee Honk was pleased to note a high proportion of girls). Surely Thistle should be doing this more as part of their community initiatives. The quality of the football does not really matter. Getting the kids on the pitch and their friends and family in the stands must be the way to bring in more local supporters. One wee lad stole the show by revealing his Thistle top as the kids ran round to take the applause of the crowd.

The only question at the start of the second half was when, not if, Ian McCall would make his changes. The action continued much as before with traffic generally moving towards the Thistle goal. A Kirk snapshot went narrowly wide, and Tuffey had to look lively to punch an awkwardly dropping cross from Glass over the bar.

Action then switched to the Dunfermline end. McKinlay won a corner. Gallacher again missed Paton’s delivery and Ian Maxwell might have done better than send his apparently free header wide of the far post. Harkins then timed his pass well to release Twaddle in a surging run round the Dunfermline fullback into the left corner of the box. His cutback was well-directed to Simon Donnelly, but a defender arrived almost simultaneously to deflect his shot wide.

The inevitable finally happened as Liam Buchanan replaced Scott Chaplain. Liam joined Kevin McKinlay up front with Simon Donnelly dropping back into midfield. Liam brought a drive, energy and combativeness which none of our other forward players have been able to match in recent months. Defenders who previously had ample time to control and dwell on the ball now found themselves under ceaseless harassment. Sadly most of Liam’s hard work had to be devoted to winning possession or throw ins and corners. He was unable to muster a single shot on goal as others rarely created opportunities for him.

Firstly Liam had to watch as John Robertson put in an excellent last man challenge to block out Kirk’s shot. Simon Storey was putting in several springheeled kangaroo style headed clearances. I am not enough of a defensive expert to know whether either or both of Robbo or Skippy should have been covering behind Maxwell in the attack which led to the goal, but with that possible exception, both appeared to be virtually immaculate throughout the 90 minutes. Nevertheless Calum Woods did manage to evade the Thistle defence to thunder a header off the crossbar.

Thistle then engineered their best attacking move of the match which ended with Donnelly setting up McKinlay for a long low shot towards the right hand corner reminiscent of Danny Lennon’s equaliser on a freezing day at Arbroath several seasons ago. Sadly this one failed to nestle in the net and slid agonisingly wide, possibly helped by Gallacher’s fingertips. Kevin’s next try came after a corner, but unfortunately he kneed the ball over the bar.

Paton was losing confidence in his ball retention and carrying capabilities and was crossing from deeper and deeper, frequently straight out of play. Harkins has no lack of confidence in his ability to ghost past players, but while he can do this while on the move, he must stop attempting it from a standing start as so often loss of possession can result in a dangerous counter attack. Stephen McKeown substituted Donnelly but had no impact on proceedings. Thistle were given some respite when Kevin Harper limped off to be replaced by Simon Wiles.

The defining moment of the match arrived with a few minutes remaining. Gary Harkins drove into the box, drawing the whole right side of the Dunfermline defence to him like bees to a honeycomb. Mark Twaddle ran into acres of space on his left screaming for the obvious pass that all the Thistle fans could see would have given him almost an open goal. Harkins either failed to spot or chose to ignore Twaddle. Possession was lost and Twaddle reduced to a screaming quivering jelly (like most of the Thistle support).

After that we all knew this would not be our day, even though the referee did play a decent amount of injury time. As the players went through the final motions, Jonny Tuffey produced an excellent save to deny Stephen Glass. Stevie Lennon replaced Gary Harkins but was unable to touch the ball. Liam Buchanan was presented with his one and only chance for a shot on goal but unaccountably dummied the cross in favour of the Invisible Man. A few high balls later, that was it.

The only consolation on a quiet journey home was that other results compacted the First Division table, conspiring somehow to keep Thistle in the top half and only 4 points behind the joint leaders. Yet eyes which were snatching eager glances upwards are now staring nervously downwards.
As this was Dunfermline’s day, it is only fair to leave the last words (almost) to Andrew Carnegie, “Fortunate indeed the child who first sees the light of day in that romantic town”. Fortunate indeed will be the supporter (17 year old child or otherwise) who sees Thistle win in the ancient capital of Scotland (or for that matter in the Fair City of Perth, as we look forward to next week’s journey to another notoriously fruitless venue).

Teams:-

Thistle (ratings): Tuffey 8, Paton 5, Twaddle 6, Storey 7, Robertson 8, Maxwell 5, Chaplain 5 (Buchanan 8), Rowson 7, McKinlay 7, Donnelly 6 (McKeown 5), Harkins 5 (Lennon 5)

Unused Subs: Hinchcliffe, Kinniburgh

Dunfermline: Gallacher, Ross, Woods, Phinn, Shields, McCann, Harper (Wiles), Glass, Bayne (Williamson), Kirk, Burke

Unused Subs: Reidford, Campbell, Dearden

Goal: Dunfermline: Kirk (36)

Referee- Steve Conroy
Assistants- Mark Doyle, James Burns

Attendance- 3242