By David Buick
Dunfermline started their Premier Sports Cup campaign with a 4-2 group stage victory over recently-promoted cinch Championship rivals Partick Thistle at Firhill.
Ian McCall’s Thistle side started well and took the lead through Brian Graham, who finished well after clever link-up play with former Dunfermline midfielder, Kyle Turner. The home side could have scored more, but Dunfermline rallied and equalised through new signing Nikolay Todorov.
Grant’s side won the day. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Peter Grant’s team extended their lead as Aaron Comrie headed home from an in-swinging Dom Thomas free kick. Before the break, Grant’s men found a third goal. Kyle MacDonald got his first Dunfermline goal, arriving at the back post to hammer home a Josh Edwards cross.
The second half had more goals, Dunfermline really in their stride, finding a fourth and it was Todorov again. Paul Allan played a lovely through ball to Todorov who beat Thistle keeper Jamie Sneddon with a delightful lob.
Thistle did get another goal, Zak Rudden with a smart header but it was too little too late for the hosts, who suffered an opening day defeat. St Mirren were handed a 3-0 victory against Dumbarton in the other Group H game after a Covid-19 outbreak at their League One opponents. Here are three things we learned.
Defeat for McCall. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Perfect start
Three points in the first league cup game and four goals away from home is a pretty good afternoon’s work. Grant he will be especially delighted with this being his first competitive game in charge of Dunfermline. Despite a slow start, his side really grew into the game and played some lovely football at times.
Todorov shines
New signing Todorov made his Dunfermline debut at Firhill and the Bulgarian forward will have really caught the eye of his new fans with two goals. A couple of clinical finishes whilst one-on-one with the goalkeeper Sneddon showed great composure and quality.
Thistle’s missed chances
With the amount of chances for both sides, had the scoreline been reversed, not many would have questioned it on the balance of play. Thistle had numerous chances in the first half especially and, but for a combination of poor finishing and fantastic saves from goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet, could have scored three or four in the first half.
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