This did not make for wunderbar viewing Dunfermline’s new owners.
With seven members of the Pars’ German majority shareholding group, DAFC Fussball GmbH, in attendance for the first time since their takeover, the Pars slipped to defeat against Partick Thistle.
Incoming directors Thomas Meggle, Damir Keretic and Nick Teller — given a raucous welcome when their presence at East End Park was announced — were among those to witness a dismal defensive showing.
Thistle found the net via two identikit set-pieces, with Ross Docherty and Kevin Holt getting their names on the scoresheet, and could have opened up a more handsome lead.
For all there was a slight improvement after the break, Dunfermline never looked like wiping out the deficit and a Ross Graham own goal made it 3-0 in the dying embers.
Head Turner
Kyle Turner, returning to East End Park for the first time since leaving the club during the summer, was mercilessly barracked from the terraces every time he touched the ball.
His response was to plant a pin-point corner kick perfectly on the forehead of Docherty to power home the opener. The Thistle midfielder — all 5ft8ins of him — was left completely free in the box.
It was deja vu all over again after 22 minutes. Another Turner delivery was lofted to the far post and Pars keeper Deniz Mehmet nervously flapped at the ball, allowing Holt to nod into the net.
Among a swathe of under-performing stars, the display of Dundee United goalkeeper Mehmet was particularly mistake-ridden.
He passed the ball straight to Thistle attacker Scott Tiffoney at one point, sparking a moment of terror in the Pars backline, and later almost spilled a simple cross into the path of Zak Rudden.
Dunfermline’s attacks were sparse and speculative — efforts from distance by Dom Thomas and Kevin O’Hara; a Graham header which drifted wide of the post — but the Pars were loudly jeered off at the break.
Futile alterations
Peter Grant replaced skipper Thomas with Craig Wighton at the break, with Aaron Comrie taking the armband on the hosts switching from 3-5-2 to 3-4-1-2, and there were faint signs of life.
Wighton was an agonising studs’ length away from converting a Kyle MacDonald delivery before a magnificent block from Lewis Mayo was required to stop Kevin O’Hara from converting a Graham Dorrans cut-back.
Wighton then smashed a shot narrowly wide of the post from 18 yards. The former Dundee and Hearts man made a visible difference.
Nikolay Todorov, feeding off scraps for the majority of the contest, did force a sharp save from highly-rated young goalkeeper Harry Stone — but there was no late rally; no Alamo.
And Thistle had the final word when a Cammy Smith cross was turned into his own net by Graham. It summed up Dunfermline’s miserable afternoon at the office.
