Thistle completed a hat-trick of Ladbrokes Premiership wins over Dundee at Dens Park night to leapfrog their opponents and move into the top half of the table.

It was a day that had seen Dundee’s managing director explaining his ambition to take the club away from Dens Park, but this has been such a happy hunting ground for the men from Maryhill this season that he may face a protest from his Thistle counterpart.

The home side had been unbeaten in a league match on their own turf since Thistle last visited back in October.

However it was Thistle who prevailed when they met at Firhill in December too and for all that the result was decided by an own goal they were much the better side last night.

The only change to the Thistle team that recorded their third successive win against Hearts on Saturday saw Christie Elliott come in for Mustapha Dumbuya.

Dundee had meanwhile gone into the match understandably unchanged following their weekend romp at Fir Park which proved decisive for Motherwell manager Mark McGhee.

The first decent opportunity was created by the visitors when Callum Booth was given the chance to run at Cammy Kerr down the Thistle left and with the full-back retreating he got into the box before squaring the ball to Chris Erskine who shot firmly enough, but directly at Scott Bain.

Dundee were making little in the way of inroads, but Tomas Cerny gave his colleagues a nervous moment when his attempted clearance was blocked by the in-rushing Mark O’Hara, only to bounce to safety.

A powerful run by Erskine then earned their second opportunity as he rolled the ball into the path of Kris Doolan, only for him to slice his left- footed effort from the edge of the box well wide.

However it was Doolan who set up their goal, out-muscling Dundee skipper Darren O’Dea as he headed for the byeline on the right.

Having won the battle he then delivered the killer thrust with a ball fired towards Ryan Edwards standing just four yards from goal.

That forced Julen Etxabeguren to try to make the attempted block but all he succeeded in doing was knocking it past the helpless Bain.

Thistle remained in control until the break and did well to withstand the inevitable reaction from their hosts after the break, Dundee upping the tempo but still failing to create any clearcut opportunities.

By contrast a delightful piece of skill wide on the right by Elliott, drawing two defenders to him before slipping the ball neatly through to Doolan with the outside of his right foot, sent him in on goal again, but Bain was able to block his effort.

Doolan looked to have wrapped things up with little more than 10 minutes remaining when he finished off a delightful move.

An angled ball from Stevie Lawless had found Abdul Osman in space inside the penalty box on the right and his first time pass was perfectly weighted. However Doolan had moved fractionally too soon and the offside flag rightly went up.

Dundee finished the half as they had begun it, pressing for an equaliser with O’Dea joining the front men and having their best opportunity when he got his head to a lofted cross from Paul McGowan.

However in spite of the match being extended by six minutes because of time added on as a result of the hapless Etxabeguren having been stretchered off there were no major alarms for Cerny, while if anything Thistle looked likelier to score on the break.