Partick Thistle 0 - 2 Dundee: Partick's pockets are picked

Published on Saturday 5 December 2009 23:19

McMenamin 45; Harkins 48

HIGH-FLYING Dundee further rubber-stamped their title credentials as they handed out a finishing lesson to cut down third-placed Partick Thistle. The home team will rightly argue they gave as good as they got during an enthralling encounter, but having wasted a hat-full of gilt-edged chances, the Jags got what they ultimately deserved – nothing.

For their part, Dundee might be the First Division equivalent of Manchester City when it comes to opening the chequebook and throwing down a wad of cash, but despite the scoreline they at times failed to impress and will know they were lucky in coming up against Thistle on a day when the Glasgow team couldn't hit a barn door. This said, Dundee look almost nailed-on certainties to win the league with quite a bit to spare.

Thistle's record at home this season has been excellent, and with this in mind not to mention another sizeable home support inside Firhill, it was the Maryhill men who flew out of the traps against the league leaders. Indeed they should have been a goal to the good after ten minutes. Only Steve Lovell will know quite how he managed to entirely miss the target against his former team when he looked long odds-on to score having been played in by Mark Corcoran.

Lovell's glaring miss failed to shake the Jags, who continued to bombard their visitors with a string of high-tempo passing moves that the Dundee defence were struggling to contain as they relied on veteran keeper Rab Douglas to keep Thistle out with some fine saves.

Dundee, missing arguably the First Division's best player, Leigh Griffiths, were toiling going forward, with only a Gary Harkins strike from the edge of the area giving the home faithful anything to get concerned about. The gap Griffiths leaves in the Dundee team cannot be underplayed as without him they looked ponderous in the final third and hopelessly devoid of movement, spark and ideas.

To be fair to Thistle though, their work-rate, endeavour and obvious appetite for the battle was going a long way in making Dundee look so average. If they could have added a finishing touch to their splendid approach play, the game could well have been over before the break. As it was, chances came and went with Stephen McKeown guilty of another bad miss when, like Lovell before him, he failed to hit the target when clean in on goal.

Even when Thistle did find their shooting boots, they came up against a keeper in fine form as Lovell found to his frustration when former Scotland No.1 Douglas defied the ageing process to leap across his goal and brilliantly tip the former Dundee striker's rising drive over the bar. It was a superb save, and possibly the game's pivotal moment.

With seconds remaining of a Thistle-dominated first half, Dundee picked their pockets with a classic sucker punch. Lone striker Colin McMenamin saw his initial effort come back off the crossbar, but despite a plethora of striped jerseys being in close proximity, he easily blasted home into the empty net for his fourth goal of the campaign.

To say Thistle must have gone in at the break with a feeling of having been mugged would be along the lines of saying Tiger Woods has had better weeks, and is probably wishing he had splurged on a second mobile phone. It was a smash and grab act, but it is hard to have total sympathy for Ian McCall's men as they must have known what was coming, having been so wasteful in front of goal.

Three minutes after the restart all those squandered chances came into even sharper focus as the visitors rubbed salt in Thistle's wounds by doubling the lead.

Former Thistle captain Harkins had already seen Tuffey produce a fine save to keep him out, only to have swift revenge when he rammed home seconds later from the resulting corner to seal the win and silence the home fans who had barracked their one-time favourite from minute one.