One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Before today’s game Ian McCall had indicated that he might consider playing some of the reserves in next Tuesday’s rearranged game against Stirling, and on the evidence of today’s tired performance, he’ll need to field a full team of reserves.

It was a game littered with fouls, most of the innocuous type, but that didn’t stop the referee’s whistle becoming the most common feature, which hardly helped the flow of a game that was already pretty poor fare for the watching fans.

Dunfermline looked the fresher of the two sides and had the bulk of the possession in the first half. For Thistle, an injury to Alan Archibald meant William Kinniburgh kept his place in defence, while Mark Roberts was back in the starting line-up, as was the fit again Stephen McKeown, but along with the rest of the players in red and yellow, they struggled to make much of an impact on the game.

There was little to enthuse the fans early on, including the paltry away support; Storey broke up a promising Dunfermline move in the 12th minute with a fine interception on the edge of the area, while at the other end Gray’s glimpse of goal was quickly shut out when Shields dived in to block his shot before Tuffey was called into action for the first time to comfortably collect a long range effort from Glass.

Midway through the first half Stevie Crawford was left unmarked to fire home from McIntyre’s pass, but from a clearly offside position. However, with the visiting side looking the livelier, an opening goal was beginning to look more likely. Seconds later Crawford almost found it when he again found space and this time Tuffey had to make a good block to deny him, and then was grateful to see Phinn fire the rebound high over the bar.

A loose pass from Pars player-boss Jim McIntyre gave Damon Gray another sight of goal but he failed to hit the target and Thistle were soon on the back foot again. Dunfermline won their first corner of the game and from Crawford’s lay-off inside the six-yard box, Thomson really should have done better than lean back and fire over the bar.

With half-time fast approaching the Thistle defence looked to have survived unscathed, but with almost the last kick of the half Dunfermline edged in front. McIntyre combined with Phinn to find Crawford on the right and with Kinniburgh just failing to cut out the pass with a desperate lunge at the ball, the Pars striker had time to pick his spot and he duly found the back of the net to make it 1-0 at half-time.

McCall tried to freshen things up by introducing Murray and McKinlay in place of Chaplain and Twaddle, and less than ten minutes later he gambled by using his final substitute with Donnelly replacing Gray.

Gray’s last involvement had saw him run onto Tuffey’s clearance and go for goal after the ball had been misjudged by the defence, but as in the first half his shot was blocked, this time by the back of Muirhead.

The substitutions did help give the Jags a little more of a threat in the second half, but despite Murray’s willingness on the left and the added guile of Donnelly, for the most part they still struggled to break down a resolute Dunfermline defence.

The match livened up briefly around the hour mark when McKinlay was given a long lecture by the referee for his strong tackle on Simmons, despite him clearly winning the ball in a 50/50 challenge. This preceded a spell of one soft free kick after another being awarded to the visitors, helping to break up the flow of Thistle’s early pressure.

The referee had a poor match for both teams, he never once allowed advantage, gave a number of strange decisions, and he had the Jags fans off their seats in anger a second time when he ignored a blatant handball by Young on the edge of the Dunfermline penalty area when he blocked Murray’s cross.

Whenever the game got the chance to flow, Thistle continued to push forward in search of an equaliser, mainly down the left wing, but without much success. Harkins picked out Murray’s run in the 64th minute, but his shot was weak and easily saved by Gallacher, and on the one occasion when Murray managed to beat his man and deliver a telling cross into the box, no one was able to get on the end of it.

Instead, it was at the other end where we came closest to seeing a second goal. First of all Phinn got on the end of Crawford’s cross, but his downward header was straight at Tuffey, and then Crawford spun away from his marker to find space and his shot was superbly touched over the bar by the Jags keeper.

In the closing minutes with Thistle still battling away in hope of a draw, Dunfermline had a final chance on the break but after Burke cut in from the left, Tuffey was again there to make the save.

So having lost their second league game of the season at Firhill, the Jags’ players trooped off dejectedly at the final whistle, clearly tired and feeling the effects of their third game in just over a week, there may also have been an element of having their minds on the cup.

The result sees Dunfermline leapfrog the Jags into fifth place, but in truth, the only real winners today were the sizeable number of Dunfermline fans who didn’t bother to turn up, reckoning that even at a reduced price, this match would be one worth missing.

Man of the match: Gary Harkins