There was plenty of legroom on the Dundee coach that meandered down to Maryhill on Saturday, as manager Paul Hartley travelled light with a squad of just 15 players to take on Partick Thistle.

The two names that matter most to the Dark Blues – Kane Hemmings and Greg Stewart – were on the teamsheet though, and again they proved their worth by combining to deliver three points that put the visitors into pole position for the title of “best of the rest” in the Premiership’s bottom six.

It was Hemmings that got the goals, but it was Stewart that was the creative force as the former Cowdenbeath teammates again displayed the telepathic understanding forged in the rustic surroundings of Central Park.

“As soon as I get the ball, I always try to get my head up and look for him. He knows where I’m going to put it and vice versa,” Stewart said.

“You never know things are going to work out quite this well when you’re at the likes of Cowdenbeath. You think to yourself: ‘I might never even see this guy again’.

“But we struck up a good partnership and have kept it going. It’s the combination play, we honestly don’t really work on it. It comes quite naturally to us because we just click and I’m delighted for him to score 25 goals.”

The early knockings in this match went much better for the hosts than the last visit from Dundee, when they were three down within quarter of an hour. They missed a couple of decent early opportunities when Kris Doolan failed to connect properly with a volley, before Scott Bain had to look lively to block from Ryan Edwards after he collected a dinked pass from Stevie Lawless.

The normally technically-proficient Gary Harkins gave Sunday footballers everywhere hope as he sclaffed a great opportunity high and wide for the visitors, but it was still a surprise when they went ahead after 34 minutes. Not only because Thistle had shaded proceedings, but because the game by that stage had descended into the type of end-of-season fare that would have you reaching for the drapes if it was taking place in your garden.

Stewart fed the ball wide to the advancing Paul McGinn on the right, and his low ball into the area was allowed to travel through to the waiting Hemmings, who thumped the ball high into the net. His enthusiastic celebration to the bare expanse of land behind the goal was the most entertaining thing on display for at least 20 minutes.

To be fair to both sides, the second-half started at a much better pace, and Doolan knocked at the Dundee door again when his bobbling effort was touched around the post by Bain. Stewart would have got himself on the scoresheet when through on Ryan Scully at the other end, but the stand-in keeper punctuated a solid performance with a great block.

Thistle hauled themselves level with 20 minutes remaining as Abdul Osman picked the ball up on the left wing, before cutting inside and curling a delightful in-swinging ball into the Dundee area. It was no surprise that it was Doolan who was the most eager to accept the invitation, and he got his head to the ball to steer it low past Bain and notch his tenth of the season.

Thistle looked to be the likelier winners at this stage, but the invention of Stewart and the composure of Hemmings – as well as some hesitant home defending - soon put that idea to bed.

With ten minutes remaining, Stewart threaded a lovely ball into the path of Hemmings’ run into the inside-right channel, and the prolific hitman showed his class with a cute finish through Scully's legs.

Considering those spare seats on the team coach, the last thing that Dundee manager would want to contemplate is losing his star pair, and perhaps that is why he hinted after the match that talks to extend Stewart’s contract had kicked off. It was news to the attacker, but there is no doubt that if he keeps up his sparkling form, there won’t be a shortage of suitors.

He said: “I’ve not been offered a new contract yet and I know there has been some speculation kicking around. I just want to concentrate on improving myself as a player.

“I want to play at the highest level I can and keep on improving. Whether that’s at Dundee, I don’t know, I just really want to kick on.”

For Thistle, their hopes of claiming seventh place suffered a blow, but with relegation not a serious threat, it was nothing more than a mild disappointment.

There was an encouraging hour from Celtic’s on-loan starlet Aidan Nesbitt, and he is hoping to build on that in the remaining four matches.

“It could have been better,” he said. "We were quite slow and we didn’t play as well as we would have liked to. We wanted to play with a higher tempo.

"Hopefully I’ll be able to get more minutes and I’ll start to get sharper again. I just want to play as much as I can. There’s another four games and I hope that I’ll play more minutes in them and take a lot more experience into next season.”

PARTICK THISTLE: Scully; Elliot, Miller, Lindsay, Dumbuya; Osman, Welsh; Lawless, Edwards (Pogba, 68’), Nesbitt (Amoo, 59’); Doolan (Nisbet, 85’).

Scorers: Doolan (70’)

DUNDEE: Bain; McGinn, Gadzhalov, O’Dea, Holt; Ross, McGowan; Stewart, Harkins (Colquhoun, 89’), Wighton (Kerr, 71'); Hemmings.

Scorers: Hemmings (34’, 81’)

Booked: Stewart (72’)

Man of the match: Kane Hemmings (Dundee)

Referee: Nick Walsh

Attendance: 2769