Kris Moore’s fantastic acrobatic effort was enough to earn Morton their first home win of the campaign at the seventh attempt, as Arbroath fell to a 1-0 defeat on the road once more.
Following last weekend’s comfortable win against Ross County, it came as no surprise to see the Lichties name a very similar side for the trip to Greenock, with Gavin Reilly replacing Nikolay Todorov up front in the only change.
Arbroath made a bright start to the match, hitting the target with a couple of half chances in the opening quarter of an hour. Neither Aaron Muirhead nor Taylor Steven could find the net however, with both efforts easily held by James Storer in the Morton goal.
The Lichties continued to dominate possession but fell behind on the half hour mark. A Morton free kick was taken quickly down the right-hand side to Owen Moffat, and the winger sent a perfect cross in for Moore to fire an overhead kick home via the underside of the bar.
Jacob MacIntyre did see a deflected effort kept out by Storer once more as Arbroath searched for an immediate response, but it was the Ton who remained ahead at the break.
After the interval, chances were at a premium as the referee’s whistle took centre stage, stopping both sides from getting into any real rhythm. Moore’s wayward strike from distance the only effort to report in the first 25 minutes of the half.
Todorov stepped off the bench in that time and almost levelled the scores with quarter of an hour remaining, when he rose highest in the middle to head goalwards where Storer was able to push the ball around the post.
With Arbroath stepping up their pursuit of an equaliser, Morton were able to find spaces on the break which resulted in a manic ending to the match. The hosts really should have had the game wrapped up moments after that Todorov chance, but McAdams strongly blocked Tomi Adeloye’s strike before Muirhead was on hand to clear Michael Garrity’s effort off the line.
The returning Ross Callachan then dragged a low shot wide while Harry Cochrane earned a yellow card in his last act before being substituted for almost ripping Garrity’s top and shorts clean off his body.
Three minutes from time saw a massive Arbroath claim for a penalty turned down, before Morton passed up another opportunity to seal it. Jack Wilkie attacked a ball in the box and was booted in the head and despite the mark on his face and the animated Lichties appeals, the referee waved play on, allowing Zak McKay to run the length of the pitch and get a shot on goal which was kept out by McAdams.
The Ton then had the ball in the net but saw their effort ruled out for offside, before members of both coaching staff were shown yellow cards for their protests. Thomas O’Brien, Garrity and Storer were also carded in the closing stages as the game threatened to boil over, but in the end, things calmed to a halt with the final whistle sounding to send the home fans home delighted.
Greenock Morton: Storer; Comrie (Ballantyne, 75), Moore, Longridge, Delaney; MacPherson, Wilson; Robertson (Garrity, 60), Lyall (Shaw, 60), Moffat (McKay, 75); Adeloye (Gillespie, 85)
Arbroath: McAdams; Stewart, Muirhead, O’Brien, Wilkie; Cochrane (Mebude, 83), Flynn, Steven, Marshall (Callachan, 71), MacIntyre (Dow, 63); Reilly (Todorov, 63)
Attendance: 1672
