It would be a tough task to live up to that billing but the Greenock men did inflict a 2-0 defeat on the Doonhamers to leapfrog them, and Raith Rovers, in the league table.

Although Fowler had anticipated a difficult afternoon, he was still left disappointed with the goals his side had conceded and the fact they struggled to pose much threat to Grant Adam’s goal.

The 35-year-old said: “I said to the players yesterday [Friday] that it was probably going to be our toughest game of the season.

“They paired Denny Johnstone and [Stefan] McCluskey, [who] is a decent player, up front. They’ve got [Alex] Samuel. Bobby Barr can cause you problems.

“They don’t give many goals away either, so they’ve got a good foundation at the back and as I say we knew it was going to be a tough game today.

“I knew Morton had been on a good run themselves and coming here is never easy. It was an opportunity to jump [ahead] of us in the league, which they’ve done.

“I didn’t think there was too much between the teams. They started the first half better then we came into it.

“In the second half, we lost a goal after five or six minutes with their main striker getting a free shot from the edge of the box. That puts you on the back foot and they score a second from a set play.

“Morton are good at what they do: they made it tough for us and we obviously found it hard to break them down.

“We’re disappointed with the goals we conceded and that we didn’t cause them enough problems at the other end. We huffed and puffed a wee bit without their goalie having too much to do.” Fowler also questioned his part in the defeat, pondering whether he got his team selection wrong on the day.

He went on: “So obviously we’re a bit frustrated and look at the team we picked and we should have maybe picked a different team for today knowing we were coming [here].

“But you’re trying to find a bit of consistency having won two games in a row, so it is a difficult one and we’ll analyse it and go again on Monday.”