Glass shattered by decision

"they are not allowed to guess, they seem to think they can ...

It was with a feeling of injustice that Stephen Glass discussed the 1-0 home defeat to Partick Thistle:-

"It is disappointing after we started the game well. They had basically one attack and got a penalty out of it, we couldn't really do much about that. The lad sticks it away."

Gary Harkins penalty was way against the run of play and was very similar to the first half at Livingston on Tuesday night:-

"Our performance at the start of the game was quite good. We tried to progress up the pitch passing it. I think we did that; the fans could see what we were trying to do it was just disappointing to lose the first goal. It is pretty important to get the first goal in this league, teams tend to try and hold on to their leads and they managed to do that."

Partick had certainly finished the first half stronger but Dunfermline rallied in the second half and were pressing for a goal and believed that they had one to celebrate midway into the half. Nick Phinn stuck the ball away after David Graham's shot from 25 yards came back off the crossbar:-

"We were pushing and scored a good goal. The linesman had a guess and guesses that it was offside. They are not allowed to guess; they seem to think they can. I thought at the time there was a possibility that it could have been offside, so you look at the linesman.  I looked away because the referee was running away, next minute the linesman had his flag up.  He has thought there was a possibility of offside and he put his flag up but he has got to know that the man is offside or he cannot put it up.

"If we had got that goal then the chances are that we could have kicked on and won. It definitely gives you a real boost. Everybody in the stadium could see that we were pushing at that point and if you get that boost, you kick on with the momentum that gives you.

"We pushed for an equaliser and they kept hanging on. If they came out to try and finish the game then we would have more space to try and win the game ourselves. It is deflating and disappointing."

The consequences of a win for Thistle and a defeat for leaders St Johnstone at Livi meant that Thistle with 47 points are now just one point behind the Perth side, although they have played one game more. The Pars are 13 points behind St Johnstone with two games in hand on them and of course two matches against them in the second week in April to come. Stephen felt that the Maryhill club warranted their place since they had won four out of their last five league games:-

"Thistle probably deserve to be where they are on the strength of that run. St Johnstone lost as well so in real terms nothing really changed for us today. That's one game less that we have to do what we are trying to do. Nobody's pulled away from us because we still need to catch the team at the top of the league if we want to go where we want to go."

There are ten games left for the Pars - two against St Johnstone, Ross County and Clyde with everyone else to play again except Thistle and Livingston. There are 30 points available and a maximum available of 65. Should the Pars defeat St Johnstone then the Perth side have a maximum of 66 points available to them but then there is just about every other team in the league still looking at overtaking St Johnstone.

35 points is only four off the bottom and the club now has to be aware of what's going on below them as well.

"Now there has to be an eye on what's going on behind us because of the position we have put ourselves in with games postponed and still being in the cup and being postponed because of that. We can be in contention at both ends of the table."

Stephen's belief, that promotion has not yet to be dismissed, is shared by the rest of the dressing room:-

"I thought before the Thistle match that it was still possible. Obviously had St Johnstone won at Livingston it would have been a lot more difficult, the only thing that has changed is that we have one game less. We got beat by Partick but it is one team less at the top that we have not to play."