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RORY McAllister was the last-gasp goal hero as we maintained our unbeaten league record at Balmoral Stadium and made it three League One wins out of three by beating Partick Thistle in the most dramatic of fashions.

The strong wind that swirled around the stadium looked like being the only winner as the two sides manfully huffed and puffed on their way to what looked set to be a 0-0 draw.

That was until super-sub Rory, who had come on midway through the second period, pounced on a delightful through pass from man-of-the-match Blair Yule and rolled the ball beyond despairing Jags keeper Kieran Wright in the third minute of injury-time.

Keeper Stuart McKenzie also did his bit with a remarkable save from Blair Spittal’s free-kick on the hour, as did Harry Milne, who nodded a net-bound Brian Graham shot off the line in the 91st minute.

It underlined just how much of a team effort it took  to secure our first ever victory over full-time opponents and keep us on top of the table.

The game only went ahead after an inspection by referee David Lowe, around 2pm, due to concerns over how the howling gale and driving rain would influence proceedings.

The wisdom of going ahead remained open to speculation, despite the fact the rain had at least been replaced by sunshine as kick-off approached.

The impossible conditions wrecked any hope of the game living up to expectations, although it wasn’t for the want of trying by both sets of players.

Manager Paul Hartley had made one change to the starting line-up that beat Peterhead 2-0 last time out, with Adam Livingstone replacing Jamie Semple, who began the afternoon on the bench.

Midfielder Hamish Ritchie, who joined us on loan from Inverurie Locos on the morning of the match, was also on the bench.

The challenging weather conditions made it impossible for us to play our usual passing game.

How bad things were was highlighted by the fact eight balls were lost in the bushes that run down one side of the stadium after passes were carried way off their intended targets.

Partick at least managed a shot on target in the 16th minute, although McKenzie was well positioned to grab Spittal’s 16-yard effort.

Our only shot of note in the half came in the 28th minute, when Wright saved Leighton McIntosh’s effort from just inside the Partick area, after a great through pass from Mitch Megginson.

Connor Scully also made an outstanding last gasp tackle to stop Mouhamed Niang getting a shot in from 15-yards, otherwise there was little for the fans watching the game live on Cove Rangers TV to get too excited about.

The real highlight was the outstanding shift in the heart of our midfield from Yule, who won countless tackles and seemed the one man immune from seeing his passes going anywhere but a team-mate.

Partick enjoyed a little more territorial advantage in the second period now that the wind seemed to be firmly behind their backs.

McKenzie did well to punch Stuart Bannigan’s cross away from the head of Graham in the 49th minute.

We managed to break up the park soon afterwards, with Jamie Masson playing the ball to Livingstone for a low 16-yard shot that was comfortably held by Wright.

McKenzie denied Partick again in the 56th minute, when he beat away James Penrice’s point blank shot, after the full-back had got on to the end of an excellent pass from Ross Docherty.

Keeper McKenzie surpassed that with a world class stop in the 60th minute.

Spittal used the wind to full advantage to thunder in a free-kick from 20-yards that would have gone in were it not for McKenzie acrobatically diving to deflect the ball over his crossbar.

McAllister had only just come on for Livingstone, in the 68th minute, when we were forced to make another change when defender Daniel Higgins went down with a hamstring injury.

When skipper Megginson hobbled off too, it looked to be a case of hoping we would be able to hold out for a point.

We were almost denied that in the first minute of injury-time when Graham tried to curl the ball home from the edge of the area but Milne had got back to head the ball off the line.

And the heroics of our left-back and keeper were rewarded two minutes later when Yule showed great skill to create space to send a pass through to McALLISTER.

The former Peterhead striker then deftly dinked the ball past Wright and it rolled on, as if in slow motion, over the line for a brilliant winning goal that kept our proud record of never surrendering an SPFL point at Balmoral Stadium intact.

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Scott Ross, Milne, Higgins (Graham 76) Strachan, Livingstone (McAllister 68), Yule, Scully, Masson, McInstosh, Megginson (Seb Ross 80).

Subs: Watson, Semple,  Ritchie, Brown, Demus.

PARTICK THISTLE: Wright, Penrice, Brownlie, Spittal, Bannigan, Graham, Gordon, Breen, Niang, Foster, Docherty.

Subs: McCready, Williamson, Cardle, Lyons, Reilly, Kouider-Alissa, Murray.

Referee: David Lowe

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