Morton 2 - 0 Airdrie United: Morton toil to victory

ANOTHER nervous win for Morton who for long periods struggled to put away Airdrie, but at this time of the season any win is a welcome one especially as it ensures the Greenock men go into the festive period still very much in title contention.

A strangely flat opening period was enlivened only by two fine saves from Grant Adam, the Scotland under-21 custodian getting in the way of David Graham’s drive from 12 yards after just four minutes then doing well to clutch Peter Weatherson’s header on the line as Morton dominated without ever bombarding the Diamonds. Despite these two stops, the on-loan St 
Mirren keeper had been a little erratic with his judgment, and he was culpable when the home team opened the scoring through Graham who nodded into an unguarded goal with Adam having inexplicably charged into no-man’s land.

But Adam went on to show he is a fine shot-stopper with denials of Graham, Scott Taggart and David O’Brien as Morton continued to dominate into the second half without closing out the game.

At the other end, Airdrie had very little to bring to the party, but could have grabbed an unlikely leveller through Jamie Barclay who saw his glancing header turned round the post by Derek Gaston.

The importance of this stop was there for all to see when Morton clinched the points seven minutes from time, Martin Hardie taking advantage of a hopeless flap from Adam to bundle home.