Saturday 2nd March, 2013 at 9:30pm
Thistle made light work of Dunfermline with victory in this match taking them, temporarily at least, to within two points of the top of the league with a game still in hand.
Alan Archibald had been unhappy with the way his side had started in the abortive fixture with Cowdenbeath but he kept changes for this match down to the bare minimum. The suspended Hugh Murray missed out and in the only change from the Cowdenbeath match Ross Forbes came in to replace him.
If the manager had been unhappy with the way Thistle had started the game against Cowdenbeath then he couldn’t possibly have levelled the same accusation at his players in this match. Thistle started the game in positive fashion and were on the front foot from the very beginning and were rewarded with an opening goal as early as the 4th minute.
Steven Lawless had seen his shot turned round the post by Gallacher to earn Thistle a corner and it was from that corner that Thistle netted the opening goal; Steven Craig being in the right place at the right time to bundle the ball over the line from close range.
There was no immediate sign that the loss of the goal was going to further dispirit a Dunfermline side that had had a difficult week, but the second goal scored in the 15th minute did knock the stuffing out of them. The ball was knocked back into the path of Ross Forbes and from close on 25 yards out Forbes drilled a low shot wide of the grasp of Gallacher and into the net.
With Thistle looking dangerous every time they came forward a third goal arrived just seven minutes later. Struart Bannigan threaded through a perfectly weighted pass for Steven Craig and Thistle captain for the day calmly steered the ball wide of Gallacher and into the corner of the net.
The points in truth were all but secured with that third goal but a ruthless Thistle side made it 4-0 with just 33 minutes on the clock. Aaron Sinclair sent Chris Erskine clear down the left hand side. Erskine’s driven cross was nearly diverted into his own net by a Dunfermline defender but any reprieve for the home side was short lived; Steven Craig being on hand to force the ball home from close range and claim his first hat-trick in senior football.
Having established a four goal lead in such quick time the rest of the game proved to be something of an anti-climax. After half-time Dunfermline attempted to regain some pride and while they weren’t devoid of spirit neither did they look remotely like puncturing Thistle’s comfortable lead. Only once was Scott Fox in the Thistle goal seriously tested; Dunfermline sub Husband seeing his effort just before the hour mark turned round the post for a corner.
The only other Dunfermline effort of any note was a Ryan Wallace free kick that the Dunfermline player was able to get round the Thistle wall, but not past a perfectly positioned Scott Fox.
At the other end Thistle didn’t carry anything like the threat that they had in the first 45 minutes but they didn’t need to.
James Craigen, Kris Doolan and Mark McGuigan all received important game time as Thistle eased themselves to maximum points in a second half in which the tempo of the game dropped noticeably. The first half performance, however, was a professional and clinical one from Thistle and one that few First Division teams, irrespective of their internal problems, would have been able to contend with.
