Morton 4-2 Dunfermline: Morton reach the summit

Scorers: Morton: Bachirou (44), Tidser (56) (89), Weatherson (60); Dunfermline: Morris (9), Wallace (77)

They rounded off a fantastic festive period by coming from behind to put championship rivals Dunfermline to the sword and post further warning that they are very much in the race for the duration.

Going into 2013 with a two-point lead over nearest challengers Partick is far from champagne ordering time, but manager Allan Moore will take the slender advantage all day long. He said: “Today was up there in terms of performances, but we need to keep it going as there no easy games in this league.

“To be top going into the new year is great, although I will be happier if we are there come May. Right now we can’t ask for more and the boys certainly have the bit between their teeth.”

Dunfermline manager Jim Jefferies was understandably far more glum in his assessment. “We didn’t deserve anything as Morton were by far the better team,” he admitted. “They were up for it more than we were.”

Fresh from their heroic Boxing Day comeback win against Partick, Morton came out the blocks flying and could have been ahead inside the opening minute had Fouad Bachirou added a finish to a lacerating move instead of shooting narrowly wide. It was a sign of what was to come in a pulsating top-of-the-table contest.

Dunfermline took longer to get into their rhythm, but it was the Fifers who opened the scoring after nine minutes courtesy of a flicked Callum Morris header from a Josh Falkingham corner. Indeed, Morton had been fortunate to escape seconds earlier when Falkingham saw his piledriver pushed round the post by home keeper, Derek Gaston.

Urged on by a sizeable home crowd, Morton were dangerous going forward, especially from set-piece situations from which the deliveries of Michael Tidser were causing problems. Veteran defender Mark McLaughlin nearly profited from just such a delivery on the quarter hour mark when he rose highest at a corner, then soon after thumped a header off the underside of the bar from another Tidser centre.

Eventually, the equaliser arrived with seconds left of the first half and it was no more than the home team deserved. The woodwork seemed to have saved Dunfermline again when Martin Hardie’s angled volley crashed off the near post, but Bachirou reacted quickest to bundle home the bouncing ball.

It was a crucial time to get back on terms and clearly made Moore’s half-time sermon easier than that of his opposite number. Whatever Moore did say seemed to hit home as his team again started the half brightly and were ahead ten minutes after the restart in spectacular fashion, with Tidser sending a sweet left-footed strike arrowing past Paul Gallacher.

At this stage the visitors had nothing to offer in reply, with the experience and physical wherewithal of Morton overwhelming the dumbstruck Pars. Peter Weatherson made it 3-1 on the hour mark as he pipped Gallacher to a rebound.

Dunfermline looked a team without the road map back into a game but then suddenly reduced Morton’s lead with another rebounded goal, this time a looping volley from Ryan Wallace. However the big push never materialised and it was Morton who grabbed the game’s sixth goal in the death throes, Tidser this time dancing past Gallacher before rolling into the vacant net to the huge delight of the 3,000-strong crowd.