A WINTER whiteout rescued Morton from a chilling defeat away at basement boys Alloa Athletic at the weekend.

With around 27 minutes of the match left to play and the hosts leading through Michael Duffy’s first-half drive, referee Alan Muir was left with no option but call a halt to proceedings due to a blizzard.

Heavy snowfall, which showed absolutely no signs of abating, made conditions farcical, with the pitch markings invisible and the yellow ball hard to track at times.

And although raging Wasps boss Jack Ross was understandably keen for the match to continue, it was, in reality, only because his side were ahead and not because conditions were playable.

While the home contingent felt robbed of three precious points in their relegation battle, the feeling was rather different amongst the away ranks.

Manager Jim Duffy admitted his out of sorts side had been dealt a massive ‘get out of jail free card’.

Far from worrying themselves about wasted time and money travelling through to Clackmannanshire, the Ton fans chanted for the game to be abandoned.

‘Call it off, call it off, call it off’ rang out from the temporary stand on the Hilton Road side of the Indodrill Stadium.

And their prayers were answered when Muir finally picked up the ball with Morton about to take a corner in the 67th minute and led the two sets of players off.

Yet there would have been very few who would have foreseen this outcome when the match had kicked off at 3pm.

After leaving behind a snowy scene in Inverclyde, grey-pavemented Alloa felt a world away upon arrival at the ground just after 2pm.

At that stage, the match was never in any doubt, with the poor quality plastic pitch comfortably standing up to the freezing conditions.

Snow was sprinkling down to give the pitch a light dusting, but not on a scale that would have given any cause for concern.

Ton kicked off with 10 of the 11 players who defeated Livingston in the Scottish Cup seven days earlier, the returning Bobby Barr replacing Ross Forbes in the only change to the line-up.

The wideman, back after a week out with an ankle ligament injury, was on the right flank, with Alex Samuel continuing on the left.

And Barr and Conor Pepper combined to cause the hosts some problems down the right-hand side in the opening 15 minutes.

Barr had the beating of left-back Colin Hamilton, a team-mate at Brechin City last season, but both his and Pepper’s final ball had mixed results.

On occasions, the delivery wasn’t quite right and on others neither striker had attacked the front post.

However, after working an exchange down the right on 12 minutes, Pepper picked out Denny Johnstone with a whipped cross.

The hitman directed a looping header towards goal, but didn’t quite get enough angle on his effort and goalkeeper Scott Gallacher reached up to catch on his line.

Pepper’s relentless forward runs were something the hosts looked to exploit by quickly feeding the ball into the space vacated by the Irishman.

On 13 minutes, playmaker Burton O’Brien sent former Ton midfielder Iain Flannigan clear down that side, with only polished defending from Lee Kilday preventing any damage.

Striker Isaac Layne was also causing the visitors headaches on his recent return after a successful loan at Brechin in which he had scored four goals in nine appearances.

The Englishman managed to ease his way onto the box and onto the end of a pass that skipped past Derek Gaston but saw his hooked effort from a tight angle crucially blocked by Luca Gasparotto. Leading the line impressively, the 20-year-old dispossessed Kilday as the centre-half attempted to scoop the ball past him on the halfway line on 26 minutes.

He quickly arrowed in on goal only to see his route blocked, with the ball breaking kindly for Duffy on the edge of the box.

But in the first of three fine first-half stops, Gaston flew full stretch to his left to turn the Celtic loanee’s curled shot around the post.

Then, on the half hour, a flag-kick from the left was cleared as far as brawny full-back Hamilton and he cut through a powerful rising drive that forced the Ton shot-stopper to push over at his top right.

Morton, on the other hand, seemed to be struggling to adapt to the steadily worsening conditions or the Wasps’ intensity, and were limited to irregular half-chances.

Barr’s inswinging cross from the left was headed over the top by O’Ware as he made a well-timed burst into the box to get on the end of the centre.

Declan McManus was eager to impress after a failed loan stint with Alloa two seasons ago, but at times it looked as though he was trying a little too hard to the detriment of his game.

He snatched at one chance after Johnstone headed down into his path, dragging wide, and then fired a low, left-footed cross into the arms of Gallacher after doing well to steal possession initially.

His namesake in the other side, Connor McManus, meanwhile, drew another fine save from Gaston on 37 minutes, letting fly with a piledriver that the Ton No1 plunged down to his left to smother.

But he was left rooted to the spot three minutes later when Duffy seized on the ball after a Joe McKee pass had been cut out.

Before the Ton playmaker could get a foot in, the attacking midfielder had steadied himself on the right-hand edge of the box and rifled a laser-beam guided angled drive inside the left-hand post.

That was on 40 minutes, and gave this writer the first real indication that the game could be in danger.

Between the ball leaving Duffy’s right foot and nestling in the net, there was a split second when I lost sight of the yellow ball in the snow and was left surprised to see it finish inside the upright.

The game would likely not even have lasted as long as it did if Samuel’s back post header from a Barr cross brought Ton level five minutes after the restart.

As it was Alloa custodian Gallacher made a fantastic block with his legs as he scrambled along his line, sending the ball skidding across the face of goal before it was knocked behind for a corner.

The fact it stayed out made whistler Muir’s decision a difficult one, but he had no choice when, on 58 minutes, he spoke to his stand side linesman and both managers as conditions deteriorated.

It sounded as though the man in the middle said “10 more minutes”, with the suggestion being that they would clear the pitch markings of snow and play that length of time before making a final call.

After a four-minute delay in which the Indodrill stewards cleared the touchlines with brushes, play resumed.

Ton boss Jim Duffy was growing increasingly frustrated with his side and decided to significantly alter his approach, replacing Pepper with substitute Ricki Lamie.

The switch was made as Ton prepared to take a corner, won after great work from O’Ware, but before they could do so Muir scooped up the ball and blew his whistle to signal the abandonment.