Saturday 12th September, 2015 at 3:10pm
Thistle returned to Ladbrokes Premiership action after the international break and faced a Dundee side occupying sixth placed in the table. Paul Hartley’s side were formidable opponents for Thistle last season and this game looked to be no different.
Alan Archibald made four changes to the side which lost to Aberdeen with Mustapha Dumbuya and Robbie Muirhead came into the side to make their debuts while Ryan Stevenson and Kris Doolan found themselves promoted from the substitute’s bench.
Thistle started the game with a high tempo and immediately imposed themselves on their opponents. A succession of early corners lead to Robbie Muirhead enjoying a break of the ball inside the box, but his shot on the turn was straight at Bain.
Dundee won themselves an early corner and from it Thistle nearly manufactured an early lead. Low’s delivery was hacked away giving Doolan the chance to counter. He played the ball to Muirhead who slotted in the Thistle number nine who fired inches past the post with Bain well beaten in the Dundee goal.
It was Doolan, causing a menace against the Dundee defence that almost opened the scoring just after 10 minutes in. Lindsay flicked on Stevenson’s cross and was met Doolan who smashed the bar with an overhead kick. Thistle were dominating Dundee in the early stages with Muirhead and Dumbuya looking particularly impressive on their debut.
Dundee, however, were a dangerous threat on the counter and when a Stewart cut back found Konrad at the back post, Thistle were fortunate that he only hit the side netting.
After a frantic start the game descended into a midfield slog with chances beginning to dry up and it was Dundee turn to miss a golden chance as Lindsay was punished for slackness on the ball but Low fires wide of goal.
As the game began to race end to end, Stevenson was played in by Muirhead only to see a thumping shot smash off the post and bounce out towards him. Dundee broke away again and only excellent tracking from Robbie Muirhead denied Irvine a clear opportunity from the edge of the six yard box.
Dundee started the second half the stronger and had the ball in the net when Stewart slid a ball through to Ross to fire home; the linesman’s flag brought the celebrations to a premature halt. Dundee were coming more and more into the ascendancy and Irvine forced a full length save from Cerny with an excellent effort from the edge of the box as the game entered it’s final half hour.
Dumbuya was next to create a good opportunity for Thistle as he whipped a cross into the box for Stevenson to head goalwards. With Bain beaten, the attacker could only watch on as his header smashed off the bar and bounced away from goal.
It was looking increasingly likely that a single goal would win the game and it was Dundee who got it with just under 15 minutes remaining. Muirhead’s pass for Doolan was cut out by Thomas Konrad, and in a chillingly similar scenario from the last meeting against the Dens Park side, Dundee broke away. McGinn played the ball wide to Stewart who collected it in his own half. He ran the length of the Thistle half before cutting inside Booth to curl a low effort past Cerny.
Dundee had a couple of chances to extend their lead through Loy when he flicked a cross over a cross from Calder before he had the ball in the back of the net, but was ruled out for offside.
Thistle fired in numerous crosses as they looked to get level but the Dundee backline held out firm and went back to Tayside with all three points.
