One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Despite the heavy rain in Glasgow today the sodden Firhill pitch looked in better condition than it has done recently and it held up fairly well as Thistle weathered the early pressure to dent Dundee’s title hopes with a late winner from Mark Roberts.

Both managers made changes, Donnelly and Chaplain starting in place of Roberts and the injured McKeown for Thistle while the return of Antoine-Curier offset the loss of Davidson for the Dark Blues.

With promotion chasing Dundee hoping to close the gap on Hamilton to just a point with a win tonight, it was no real surprise to see the visitors start strongly. McDonald and Antoine-Curier were heavily involved in their promising moves early on, but without doing enough to open up the Jags defence.

Thistle produced a couple of promising moves of their own too, but despite some decent approach play by both sides, there was a lack of a cutting edge and with the defences holding firm, neither keeper was tested.

Dundee were in the ascendancy though, and had a couple of goal attempts blocked by the Thistle defence, but the first clear shot didn’t come until midway through the first half and even then it was wayward long range effort from Dundee full-back Dixon. A few minutes later Thistle fashioned their first real chance when McKinlay met Chaplain’s cross but his header was well wide of goal.

As the half progressed Dundee began to dominate possession more and more and although they were still struggling to create any clear-cut chances - another drive from Dixon that was deflected over by one of his own players the only chance of any note - as half-time approached they suddenly found a way through and should have opened the scoring.

Antoine-Curier combined with Lyle on the edge of the Thistle box with the on loan Hibs striker barging his way past Storey to collect the return ball leaving him with only the keeper to beat, but he blasted over with the goal at his mercy.

Sensing that a goal was coming, Dundee pushed forward again and when the ball was played low into the box Tuffey was called into action to turn it round the post. From the corner the ball broke to Lyle on the 18-yard line and he tried to curl it into the top corner but Tuffey was equal to it and the Thistle goal remained intact.

At half-time Ian McCall changed things round by introducing Murray in place of McKinlay on the left wing, and the diminutive winger made an immediate impact, and played his part in a much improved Jags performance.

Just a few minutes into the second half he started the move on the left that eventually resulted in Donnelly slipping the ball into the path of Gray, the Hibs youngster was having a quiet game but showed his sharpness in front of goal by forcing Samson into making a good save at his near post.

Dundee responded when a ball from the left wing was flicked into the path of McDonald but Tuffey just got there in front of the Scotland U21 star to smother the danger. The impressive Antoine-Curier then drove forward with the ball at his feet before slipping a pass through to O’Brien, but he wastefully blasted over the bar.

Despite scoring 8 goals in 6 games before tonight, Antoine-Curier had already missed one good chance in this game, and in the 60th minute he was guilty of missing an even better opportunity to open the scoring when Dundee cut through the heart of the Jags defence with ease. This time the final ball was spot on and when McDonald slid the ball into his path, the Dundee fans behind the goal were already rising to acclaim the striker’s goal only for Antoine-Curier to blaze it wide.

It was a real let-off for the Jags and just a couple of minutes later it looked as if Dundee would pay dearly for that miss when the ref adjudged David Cowan to have fouled Stevie Murray inside the area and he pointed to the spot.

It looked a soft decision as Cowan appeared to have beaten Murray to Roberts’ pass and any contact came after that. However, after being given the penalty, the Jags players were then left furious when the referee reversed his decision after consulting with his assistant, and Simon Donnelly was booked for his complaints.

The anger about the decision (even if it was probably the right one) helped fire up the Thistle players and with just under half an hour left we had the makings of a really good game with both sides pushing forward in search of a goal.

The game was being played at a frenetic pace and although Dundee threatened when McDonald drilled the ball across the six-yard box, it was Thistle who held the upper hand and with Roberts on in place of Gray, it was the Jags who looked the more likely to find a winner.

They had a couple of half chances to try and do so, firstly Roberts took advantage of the Dundee defence failing to deal with a long ball into the box to cushion a pass back to Rowson, but he drilled his shot wide. Then a poor clearance from Samson was knocked back towards the danger area for Murray to chase, but the keeper made amends by winning the race to clear the ball to safety.

With the game seemingly heading towards a stalemate Thistle dealt a major blow to Dundee’s title hopes by breaking the deadlock with just a couple of minutes remaining. And it was a well-worked goal. Murray’s low cross picked out Donnelly and he found Roberts who knocked the ball past the defender at the near post before calmly slipping the ball under the keeper to make it 1-0.

As Thistle celebrated there were Dundee players slumped to the floor as they saw their promotion chances recede. They tried to regroup and push forward in search of an equalising goal, but apart from McDonald blasting a shot well wide the Jags defence were untroubled and held out for a win that moves them to within three points of fourth placed QOS.

The late winner was cruel on Dundee, but they’d failed to score when on top in the first half and it was Thistle who were better side after the break, and they got their rewards with Roberts netting his sixth goal of the season.

Man of the match: Gary Harkins