STUNNED Morton striker Alex Samuel says the visibility issues caused by the blizzard at Alloa on Saturday were so significant that he actually started celebrating a phantom goal.

The match was eventually abandoned after 67 minutes, with the likes of gutted Wasps boss Jack Ross making the case the game could have been played to its conclusion.

But the 20-year-old Ton forward said it was virtually impossible to see the ball, with his vision impaired to the extent that he couldn’t tell if his 50th-minute header had ended up in the net or not.

Speaking exclusively to the Tele, Samuel said: “Honestly, the cross came to the back post and it bounced in front of me and I put my head in, hoping for the best.

“I couldn’t really see much but I got a good contact before falling behind the goal. I heard the crowd cheering and thought: ‘Oh, it’s gone in! Brilliant!’ because I couldn’t really see.

"But then I spotted the ball rolling across the goalmouth and thought: ‘What’s happened?’ I couldn’t tell at first because of the snow and then a defender was in the way.

“What actually did happen was I headed it and it went through the keeper’s legs but hit his back calf. I still don’t know how he saved it, but he did.”

It, therefore, stands to reason that the Swansea loanee would agree with manager Jim Duffy and team-mate Luca Gasparotto that referee Alan Muir didn’t really have a choice but to call a halt.

He added: “The Alloa players were saying to the ref on the pitch: ‘Don’t cancel it. Play on.’ But we couldn’t see anything. It was quite an experience.

“Then in the second half when it was falling heavily, the ball would skid away from you, and running was difficult. I wouldn’t say the surface was dangerous as such. It was dangerous in the way someone could slip and roll their ankle or something.

“I felt okay in terms of safety – the problem I had, even when we were warming up, was the snow affecting your vision and getting in your eyes. It was really hard to even look up.

"In those conditions you couldn’t play on really. It didn’t feel like a football game. You were just thinking: ‘What’s happening here?’”

New Alloa gaffer Ross recently took the decision to narrow the Indodrill Stadium playing surface by around five yards on each side. Samuel, who played on the left of midfield, revealed that made for an even trickier time when trying to judge where the touchline was when covered in snow.

He explained: “Also, they had narrowed the pitch in, so, as a wideman, it was harder to see the lines. In your head, you would be thinking the pitch is wider but it wasn’t.

“So you’d be running down the wing with the ball thinking to yourself: Where’s the line? Where’s the line?’ You had no idea where it was because of the snow. It was difficult.

“I did everything I could to do my best, but everything was harder because it was much tighter and I didn’t have the space I wanted to get the ball and run at people.

“I would get the ball and they would be right behind you giving you no time. It was a good game-plan for them to tighten the pitch. It suits their game and it works.”

If there was a silver lining from Saturday for Samuel, it was that the header he had saved would have been stricken from the record if it had crossed the line.

And the Welshman admitted he had huge sympathy for Alloa goalscorer Michael Duffy, whose voided strike was both his first on loan at the Wasps and in Scottish senior football.

He added: “I was trying to think of a positive about the ball not going in, and that would have been that it wouldn’t have counted anyway.

“It’s terrible, actually horrible that Michael Duffy’s goal didn’t count. I really feel for him, because to score your first goal at a club is important, it kind of sets you up.

“So for it not to even be in the record books must be horrible.”