KRIS Doolan was recently inducted into Partick Thistle’s Hall of Fame and he enhanced his legendary status among the Firhill faithful with a priceless double as they boosted their Championship survival hopes.

Partick Thistle climbed out of the dreaded relegation play-off position and up to eighth following a convincing 3-0 win over Morton courtesy of Doolan's first half brace and Steven Anderson also on the scoresheet before the interval.

The battle to beat the drop remains a fraught one in Scottish football’s second tier with just five-points between the bottom five team as Morton were dragged towards the relegation scrap and Partick manager Gary Caldwell was thrilled to pick up maximum points.

Caldwell said: “Massive win at an important time of the season. “The league table does not matter until the last game of the season and then you look at it as that’s when it’s important where you finish. What matters is we got a massive three points, we got a clean sheet which we haven’t had for a while and we can move into next week with confidence and look forward to Dunfermline at home.”

The old adage that goals change game was certainly evident at Cappielow where Partick Thistle had been second best in the opening exchanges until Doolan opened the scoring after 18 minutes. Until then Morton had been on the frontfoot but their inability to find the back of the net cost them dear, as did their inability to defend corners.

Jack Iredale fizzed a shot come cross across the face of goal an just wide early on, then Charlie Telfer, a late addition to the starting line-up after Lee Kilday suffered an injury during the warm-up, spread play to Reghan Tumilty and he played a one-two with Greg Kiltie but his cross was cut out at the near post by Steven Saunders.

Morton’s best chance came when Robert Thomson popped possession off to Kiltie and then spun in behind Anderson to collect the return pass. Thomson was now in on goal but Conor Hazard came off his line to narrow the angle and divert his shot wide.

Morton were made to pay for not converting the opportunities they had carved out when Doolan broke the deadlock after 18 minutes. The striker latched onto a longball over the top of the Morton defence from Shea Gordon and with his second touch steered the ball beyond Robbie McCrorie.

The home side then created a couple more chances as on two occasions Telfer and Kiltie worked short corners with a Kilmarnock loan star swinging in crosses and with the first one Gregor Buchanan’s header fell for Kerr Waddell but he blazed over, the for the second Thomson glanced a header over.

In contrast Partick profited at corners to add to more goals to their tally before the interval. Anderson got on the scoresheet after 36 minutes when his downward header from Blair Spittal’s corner was blocked in front of goal by teammate Scott McDonald but it popped back to the veteran defender and he lashed it home from close range.

Then in the closing stage of the first half a corner routine worked wonders as Gordon played an outswinging ball to the edge of the area and McDonald helped it goalward where Doolan was on hand to force it home.

Morton needed a reaction after the interval and there was a brief one at the start of the second half when Reece Lyon was denied a certain goal by a wonderful block from Stuart Bannigan but that soon fizzled out.

Partick had the ball in the net again as they countered with pace and purpose following a Morton corner but Spittal was adjudged to have strayed offside as he collected Gordon’s pass before he dispatched past McCrorie and it was chopped off.

Morton manager Jonatan Johansson bemoaned his side’s defending, saying: “We should have scored first but the manner we lose the first goal was really poor defending and then lose two set plays. It was hard to take the goals we lost.”