Partick Thistle 2 Falkirk 1: Bairns defeated despite strong second half

Two goals in five first half minutes from James Penrice and Chris Erskine left Paul Hartley's side with an uphill task, and Rees Greenwood's 91st minute strike was mere consolation.

Thistle started far the brighter side, not allowing Falkirk out of their own half once in the first ten minutes.

Paul Hartley's side limited their hosts to just one shot in the opening ten minutes, with Thistle's first real opening coming on 22 minutes.

Miles Storey cut the ball back for Blair Spitall, but the midfielders' shot was well blocked by Tom Dallison and easily gathered by Leo Fasan.

Alan Archibald's side only had to wait another two minutes to take the lead, though.

Left back James Penrice cut in from the left, evading two tackles with fake passes, before firing a shot which deflected a couple of times before flying past Fasan.

Thistle doubled their advantage just five minutes later, courtesy of a hammer from Chris Erskine.

The midfielder evaded a couple of weak challenges on the right hand side before firing into the top corner past Fasan, who was again left chanceless.

Falkirk created just one half chance in the first half. Right on the brink of the break, Harrison flicked a free-kick into the path of Dallison but he failed to control.

Into the second half, and a double change at the break - with Petravicius and Sammut replaced by Greenwood and Russell - seen the Bairns significantly improve.

Dennon Lewis moved up top, with Mark Russell debuting on the left.

On the hour mark, Andy Irving was extremely unlucky not to half the Thistle lead.

The 18-year-old's 30-yard free-kick crashed off the bar, hitting Cammy Bell in the back and going out for a corner.

The resulting corner seen Scott Harrison hit the bar, too, as the Bairns turned up the pressure.

With twenty minutes to go, three corners in succession seen the first shot on target for Paul Hartley's side as Tom Dallison's looping header was touched over.

Paul Paton again showed Bairns fans what he is all about, flying into challenges and getting in opposition faces, but he was maybe fortunute to just see yellow when he raised his hands late on.

On 81, Jordan McGhee squandered a massive chance. The defender was found perfectly after a great ball from Paton, but thrashed wide from six yards.

Falkirk got the goal that their second half performance merited one minute into injury time. Rees Greenwood's cracking low strike halved the deficit.

The Bairns were unable to rescue a point from the game despite that goal, and will sit second bottom for at least two weeks, before the visit of Queen of the South to The Falkirk Stadium on August 25.