Match Report
With Thistle aiming to make it back to back to back wins away from home Ian McCall made three changes to his starting eleven for the fixture with Dunfermline. With Jonny Tuffey away with the Northern Ireland squad Craig Hinchcliffe came in for his first league appearance since January 2008 when Thistle drew 1-1 with Clyde at Firhill. Elsewhere Bryan Hodge and Chris Erskine dropped to the bench with Jamie Adams and Chris Erskine coming in to replace them in the starting eleven.
Thistle had made a bright opening to this game with half chances for Adams and Buchanan in the opening minutes but it was Dunfermline that took an early lead. A quite needless corner was conceded and when Gibson's flag kick was flicked on McDougall was able to knock the ball home from inside the Thistle six yard box despite a mass of bodies.
Although play middle to front remained bright Thistle looked set to press the self destruct button at any opportunity at the back in the early stages and were nearly 2-0 down in the 12th minute. Ian Maxwell gifted the ball to Graham Bayne with Thistle thankful that he mishit his shot leaving Hinchcliffe to make an easy save.
Despite trailing and defensive uncertainty Thistle continued to play decent football going forward winning a series of corners without putting the Dunfermline defence any serious pressure from these set plays. Nor was the final ball from open play good enough. That wasn't the case in the 22nd minute when Corcoran whipped in a great cross from the left but on this occasion there was no Thistle player on the end of it.
In the 40th minute Thistle found themselves trailing by two. The game had looked like drifting towards half-time without any further addition to the score but Willie Gibson was able to gather the ball at the edge of the Thistle box and he had time and space to chip the ball over Hinchcliffe and into the net.
A goal from Thistle prior to the break would have offered some hope of a comeback and in the 44th minute Thistle did have a chance to do just that. A Paul Paton cross from the right hand side was met by Liam Buchanan but his header slipped the wrong side of the post leaving Thistle with a long way back in the second half.
An early second half goal was high up Thistle's wish list and less than two minutes after the restart that's what they got. An error in the home defence was seized upon by Paul Cairney and from the edge of the box he drilled a shot into the corner of the net.
In the 57th minute the Thistle fans were on their feet when it looked as if David Rowson would beat Dunfermline keeper Fleming to the ball right at the edge of the box but the Dunfermline keeper got there just a split second before Rowson.
In the 66th minute Thistle made a double change with Bryan Hodge and Steve Lovell coming on for Jamie Adams and Simon Donnelly.
Lovell's first involvement in the game wad to flick a ball forward to Liam Buchanan anmd although Buchanan was able to fire a shot towards goal Fleming was able to get his body behind the ball and save and hold onto the ball.
In the 71st minute Dunfermline thought they had a third and potentially match clinching goal when a Phinn cross was turned past Hinchcliffe and into the net but their celebrations were cut short by a raised flag.
With 15 minutes Thistle were close to an equalising goal. Defensive uncertainty gave Liam Buchanan an opportunity but he could only hit his shot of Fleming in the home goal though in fairness the Dunfermline keeper was no more than a yard away from Buchanan.
The pace of Steve Lovell earned Thistle a corner a minute later and although Archibald and Maxwell were able to get their heads to the ball it wouldn't kindly and Dunfermline cleared at the expense of another corner.
At the other end Graham nearly gave Dunfermline the cushion of a third goal but Hinchcliffe was equal to his shot.
It was Thistle that were doing the bulk of the pressing at this point. Lovell was able to get his head to a Cairney corner but the ball bounced wide before the same player teed up Buchanan for a shot who rather mishit his effort and the chance was lost.
As much as Thistle pressed for an equaliser Dunfermline were always a major threat on the break and with the game in injury time they sealed the win. Willie Gibson was set up and from 12 yards he made no mistake with a well hit drive across Hinchcliffe.
