Moore the merrier in title race

Morton manager Allan Moore joined Partick Thistle’s Jackie McNamara and Dunfermline’s Jim Jefferies in receiving a Manager of the Month award this season and the Greenock boss reckons that, not only has the award moved him to the same status as his rivals, but his team should now be seen as title 
challengers alongside the top two in the First Division.

Moore picked up the IRN-BRU Phenomenal Award for October after a win over the Glasgow side and away draws with the Pars and Livingston and he said: “Partick and Dunfermline are ahead of us in the league at the moment but we had good results against them last month. We beat Jackie’s team 3-1 and then drew with Dunfermline which was disappointing as we had been two goals up.”

The Greenock side sit four points adrift of the top two but Moore enjoyed October after a sluggish start to the league campaign. “I was under a bit of pressure but then again the manager of Morton is always under pressure, as the fans there expect you to be at the top of the table. We had drawn 1-1 with a Hamilton side that had ten men and I felt things starting to get uncomfortable, but things have turned around a bit since then.”

Summer recruits Mark McLaughlin, Kevin Rutkiewicz and Martin Hardie have helped with that by contributing positively at a combined age of 104 after barely featuring in the opening weeks of the season.