Dunfermline suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of Partick Thistle.
It was the Pars’ second league defeat of the season but the first match in which they haven’t put in a performance worthy of the standards they have set.
Goals from Scott Robinson, Brian Graham and Kerr McInory gave Thistle a 3-0 win at Firhill and left the Pars with much to ponder.
Courier Sport looks at the talking points from Saturday’s defeat.
A rare poor league performance
James McPake said the performance surprised him and it is no wonder given it was just their third league defeat during his stewardship.
Dunfermline lost one league game in League One last season as they marched to the title.
The other came this season in the defeat to Raith but there were enough positives from that performance to keep their manager happy.
McPake wasn’t too downbeat after Saturday’s defeat and sees it as an opportunity to put things right between now and Arbroath next week.
They will be hoping to hit the same performance levels that they did in their “best performance” under McPake against Morton a week past Saturday.
Injuries
McPake was also reluctant to make excuses – the players who did start weren’t good enough on the day, that is inarguable.
They are, however, slightly hamstrung right now due to their injury list. Deniz Mehmet took part in a Championship match-day squad for the first time this season and Matty Todd has also missed the league season so far.
They were out along with Kyle Benedictus, Rhys Breen, Paul Allan and Andrew Tod going into Saturday’s match.
It was also decided not to risk Ben Summers, who had a thigh issue in training on Friday. McPake hopes he will be available for next weekend.
Ruthless Championship
Post-match, McPake said he and his management team would need to look at if they could have changed the shape of the team.
The Pars backline was vulnerable to Partick Thistle’s width but, regardless of shape, there were enough good performers on the day and they didn’t defend well enough as a team.
Dunfermline did have their moments, in what their manager described as a “game of basketball”, but Thistle were far more clinical with their opportunities.
This young team will have to learn quickly that poor performances are punished more in the Championship.
That said, there have been few times you could say Dunfermline have had an off day as poor as that under McPake.
