Partick Thistle’s promotion hopes took a sizeable hit at Firhill as Dunfermline racked up a comfortable 4-1 victory, consigning Kris Doolan’s men to back-to-back Championship defeats.

Thistle’s Logan Chalmers cancelled out Lewis McCann’s excellent opener within the first five minutes, but the contest would be downhill from there for the home side. An own goal from Kanaya Megwa and a volley from Chris Kane would re-establish the Pars’ lead before the break, and a fourth from substitute Josh Cooper with around 10 minutes to go ensured take they would take three valuable points back to East End Park.

Here are five talking points from a disappointing afternoon for the Jags.

Title tilt in tatters

If the 2-1 win over Queen’s Park the previous week had supporters dreaming of Thistle stringing a set of results together and gaining some momentum in their title tilt, the Hogmanay defeat at Cappielow soon brought them back down to earth. The 2-1 loss represented a missed opportunity, but this contest against Dunfermline gave them the opportunity to respond.

The postponement of Friday night’s meeting between Airdrie and Falkirk meant that the Jags had the chance to claw back some ground on the league leaders with a win over Dunfermline in Maryhill – but it is one that slipped through their fingers. The home side, perhaps tired from their midweek exertions against Morton, never really got going as they put in one of their most dispiriting and disjointed displays of the season.

The Pars claimed all three points thanks to a blistering first-half display, and the truth is that Doolan and Co could have no complaints. The Jags were decidedly second-best in just about every department on an afternoon where Livingston dropped points and Ayr won, leaving Thistle 10 points behind Falkirk having played an extra game, and four behind Livi in third.

The past two results have left the prospect of winning the title as a distinctly remote one. Once again, it looks like Thistle’s hopes of promotion may hinge on the play-offs.

Slow start and quick-fire response

The game didn’t start well for the Jags. With barely four minutes on the clock, Thistle found themselves trailing when McCann opened the scoring with a sumptuously-struck volley from inside the area that flew into the top corner.

Thistle’s response, though, would be even swifter than that. Within 120 seconds, Chalmers had drawn the home side level – albeit with a helping hand from Pars goalkeeper Tobi Oluwayemi. Some excellent counter-attacking saw the Jags maraud menacingly up the park, with the man in possession consistently making the right decision and finding a team-mate in space. The ball was eventually worked to Chalmers in acres of space on the right; he cut inside onto his preferred left foot and drilled the ball at Oluwayemi, with the pace on the ball taking it past the goalie and into the back of the net. The on-loan Celtic keeper won’t be in a rush to watch it back.

Controversial corner and Jags collapse

The game soon settled and neither side truly seized the initiative – but as the half wore on, the momentum unquestionably swung in the visitors’ favour. The Pars went close to regaining their lead midway through the first half when midfielder Ewan Otoo unleashed a powerful drive at goal, only for the underside of the crossbar to come to Thistle’s rescue as the ball ricocheted clear. Soon, though, Dunfermline would gain the upper hand – much to the anger of the home support.

The Pars won a corner shortly after Thistle centre-half Dan O’Reilly had gone to ground, and referee Steven Kirkland ordered the defender to the sidelines to receive some treatment despite his protestations. Matty Todd struck the corner while his side had the numerical advantage, drilling a powerful delivery across the face of goal that Megwa inadvertantly bundled into his own net from a few yards out.

Dunfermline would double their advantage before the break, this time via Chris Kane with an acrobatic volley as the Jags were subjected to wave after wave of attack. As the players trudged off the park at half-time, the only consolation the Jags could draw upon was that they were only two goals down.

Thistle would come out in the second half with greater attacking intent to try and reduce the arrears, but the damage had been done. The Jags dominated possession and huffed and puffed, but rarely genuinely threatened Oluwayemi’s goal. Many in Firhill decided they had seen enough when Cooper made it 4-1 on 82 minutes as they made a swift exit out of the ground.

Ins and outs

The 2-1 win over Queen’s Park the previous week – Thistle’s final home fixture of 2024 – saw Doolan’s men grind out a hard-fought victory over the Spiders, but it was perhaps what occurred after the full-time whistle that was the most noteworthy aspect of the win. As the home crowd serenaded their heroes, on-loan goalkeeper Myles Roberts took his time departing the park, instead walking around the stands and seemingly thanking the supporters one last time.

It looked for all the world that Watford had decided to recall the keeper, who had proven to be a fine addition to the Maryhill club’s squad. At the time of writing, no official announcement has come out of Firhill regarding his future, but his disappearance from the matchday squad told its own story. David Mitchell was his replacement, making his first league appearance of the season.

The 33-year-old’s display had ups and downs, which was probably unsurprising, given his lengthy absence from the starting XI. He could do nothing about McCann’s sweetly-struck opener, yet he subsequently pulled off a few solid but unspectacular saves throughout the match. Mitchell had to be alert to get down quickly to palm behind a decent effort from Kane Ritchie-Hosler from an angle midway through the first half, but he could perhaps have done more to deny Dunfermline’s second goal – a drilled corner across the face of goal. As for the Pars' third and fourth goals, there wasn't much he could have been reasonably expected to do.

Megwa’s recent absence due to injury has resulted in Doolan resorting to fitting square pegs into round holes in defence over the past month or two, but the Thistle manager had no such selection headaches here. Megwa returned to the starting line-up in his usual right-back berth, allowing makeshift defender Kyle Turner to play in his natural midfield position.

Megwa put in an unconvincing showing at right-back but it's worth noting that Dunfermline didn’t find much joy attacking down his flank, while Turner looked a little rusty in the middle. A few misplaced passes were met with frustrated groans from the home fans, and the playmaker struggled to influence the game as he would have liked against his former club.

TJF takeover

As the crowd trickled into Firhill with kick-off looming, the John Lambie – home of the Jags’ ultras – looked a little sparser than usual. Many stood at their usual spots, but the stand looked decidedly quieter than most weekends.

The reason was simple: many of those who regularly occupy the John Lambie had relocated to the Jackie Husband for The Jags Foundation’s hospitality takeover. Around 180 supporters of the fans’ group indulged in a pre-match meal and a few drinks, while Thistle players wore a one-off, TJF-produced kit that contained the names of each of the group’s near-2000 members; a strip-backed design featuring plain red-and-yellow stripes. Nealy all of the TJF members were sporting it, too.

It was an afternoon to celebrate the strides the fans’ group has made. It wasn’t so long ago that TJF’s membership was in the low hundreds, supporters held no real power at Firhill, and civil war threatened to break out; now the club is fan-owned in every sense of the word and its support is unified.

Those in the hospitality suite certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves, despite Thistle’s performance. Supporters were in good spirits – at least to begin with – and there was even that rarest of all beasts: an outbreak of chanting in the Jackie Husband Stand.

It was an afternoon where TJF and its supporters were rewarded off the park. But on it? Their team let them down.