STRUGGLING teams often get a leg-up in the game immediately following a change of manager but not usually like this. This was meant to be Dundee United’s day to benefit from the dead-cat bounce having taken the decision last weekend to dispense with Jackie McNamara. With Dave Bowman in temporary charge and facing the team at the bottom of the table, this was all set up to be the first act in United’s long-overdue recovery.

It never quite panned out that way. Instead it would turn out to be Thistle’s day, and deservedly too, as they ran United ragged to record their first victory of the campaign at the 11th attempt. They have had cause too often to bemoan their misfortune around Firhill this season – an official matchday stats pack showed they have struck the woodwork more than any other side in the division and they did so again here – but there would be no hard luck story on this occasion as Alan Archibald’s side scored three times without reply, leapfrogging United into 11th place in the progress. Even Kingsley, Thistle’s seemingly permanently enraged mascot, seemed happy enough come the full-time whistle.

There were heroes all over the park for Archibald but none more so than Mustapha Dumbuya. Signed in the summer, the right-back – whose international call-up for Sierra Leone was mentioned excitably by the Firhill announcer no fewer than three times – was a blur of energy up and down the wing all day, his reward Thistle’s second goal after 55 minutes that all but confirmed the victory. There was a touch of good fortune about it as Steven Lawless failed to get a touch on what Dumbuya admitted had been more a cross than a shot. Thistle, though, will feel they were overdue a change in fortunes.

“My goal was a flukey one, I just hit it and it went straight in,” said the player who moved to London as a young boy. “Steven admitted he didn’t touch it so it was just one of those lucky ones because it was a cross. We haven’t been getting much luck lately but it was always going to turn.”

His seemingly boundless energy reserves were appreciated both by the home crowd and by his manager. “There was a lot of energy in the team and Mustapha did well,” said Archibald. “He hasn’t had a pre-season but you can see what he brings.”

Dumbuya’s goal was sandwiched by strikes from David Amoo after 15 minutes and then Stuart Bannigan midway through the second half. Amoo was able to nod a header over the line from a matter of yards after Callum Booth’s cross took a deflection and hung invitingly in the air, while Bannigan directed a back post effort into the far corner of the net after Amoo’s cross had wound its way to him across the box. Pressure would undoubtedly have started to mount on Archibald if his side had failed to win again, making him a relieved as well as a contented man afterwards.

“That was similar to some of the performances we’ve had but we got the reward today,” he said. “Morale has been low and it has not been nice looking at the paper on a Monday morning to see you are bottom of the table. But we’re not daft - we’re still second bottom and we need to build on this.”

This will likely be Bowman’s first and last match in charge of first-team affairs at Tannadice and he did not spare a group of players who barely put up a fight as Thistle breezed past them with comparative ease. Scott Fraser was unfortunate to see a first-half shot prang against a post but beyond that United struggled to lay a glove on Thistle. Alan Irvine is the latest name to be linked with the managerial vacancy and Bowman believes whoever gets the post will inherit a talented group of players but one drained of all morale and confidence.

“We are a weak team,” he said. “You’ve got to have belief and drive. Every time the ball dropped in the second half Thistle were able to pick it up. They had more desire. They are young boys but they have to show strong character. They are not bad players. Whoever comes in to manage will get a good squad of players but they have to take a lot of responsibility. I hear it from other clubs that we are a soft touch and I agree with them. And I find that really hard to accept.”