Dunfermline boss John Hughes felt his side’s 4-1 victory over Partick Thistle was a “long time coming” as they moved off the foot of the Championship.
The Pars suffered an early setback, going 1-0 down to a Ross Docherty strike on five minutes.
But the home side were undeterred and fought back to lead 3-1 after half an hour thanks to an own goal and strikes from Matthew Todd and Josh Edwards.
‘Long time coming’
Dom Thomas, who set up the second and third goals then rounded off the evening, finishing off a counter attacking move to make it 4-1 late on.
For Hughes, the victory was more than deserved.
“It’s difficult when you feel you are doing a lot of things right in the games,” he said. “It has been like that for a while now but you need to keep believing in the process and the philosophy.
“It’s very pleasing when it comes off, we were not far away on Friday and it was a matter of going again.
“We lost a soft goal but we showed character and resilience to get back into it. At 3-1 at half-time you could say the game was dead and buried and we had to manage it in the second half.
Dom Thomas praise
“Dom got his goal although I wish it was a wee bit earlier.
“It was a real good performance and I’m absolutely delighted for them.
“It’s been a long time coming and the difference tonight was that they went in. Our crossing was very, very good and I thought in the first half our passing was really good.
“We know where we are and we won’t get carried away with this result.”
Hughes reserved special praise for Thomas’ man of the match performance.
The midfielder is in fine form after returning from knee surgery.
“He is in the zone at this moment in time,” Hughes said.
“He’s come back from injury; we’ve kept the reins on him.
“When he’s on that kind of form he is an asset to any team and I’m delighted for him.”
Partick reaction
Partick boss Ian McCall admitted Dunfermline were worthy winners.
“We scored a great goal and then had too many errors, especially in dangerous areas. Dunfermline deserved to win the game.
“We made a few chances at the end of the first half but we didn’t create anything in the second.
“We need to have some perspective as we are pushing for promotion while Dunfermline, a similar size club are trying not to go down.”
Dunfermline 4 – 1 Partick Thistle: Pars brush aside the Jags to move off bottom
