REPORT: Morton 2 Livingston 1

Goals from Denny Johnstone and Joe McKee saw the Ton fight back from behind to claim all three points against relegation-threatened Livi.

Elsewhere Queen of the South and St Mirren, the sides sat directly beneath the Greenock men in the table and trailing them by a point going into this round of fixtures, lost out on the day.

And that was enough for Jim Duffy and his men to both stretch their lead and set up an opportunity to guarantee finishing ahead of arch rivals St Mirren by winning next week’s derby.

The management team and players have never publicly stated a specific objective other than picking up a steady stream of points to finish as high as possible, a mindset that continues to this day.

However, there were some outside of the club who expected the League One champions to struggle upon their promotion to the second tier.

Listening to a podcast at the start of the campaign - one that Conor Pepper also referred to as a source of motivation in an interview - a panel of pundits predicted Ton would be embroiled in a relegation battle this term.

So, it is testament to their season that the fact Saturday’s victory officially guaranteed their Championship status for next season went largely unnoticed.

By taking maximum points, they moved 14 clear of their opponents with nine left to play for, thereby definitively preserving their place.

Livingston, on the other hand, find themselves right in the mire and fighting it out with Dumbarton to avoid the dreaded relegation play-offs.

It was the hosts, though, who made the more sprightly start and controlled much of the first 25 minutes.

An afternoon that would revolve around dead-ball situations would quite fittingly start with a free-kick, Marc McCallum comfortably clutching a Ross Forbes curler on five minutes.

The first chance created in open-play came via a counter that saw Ton transition from defending at left-back to establishing an attacking overload down the right flank in a matter of seconds.

Starting with Joe McKee, the ball flowed through Bobby Barr, Alex Samuel and Forbes before the playmaker reversed a disguised pass into Paul McMullan’s path.

McMullan, so impressive at Dumbarton at last weekend, picked out Denny Johnstone with a pin-point cross, but Ton’s top scorer miscued, screwing a header back across the face of goal.

It was back to the set-piece threat on 13 minutes when a variation on their trademark short-corner routine almost paid dividends.

Forbes slipped the ball to McMullan, who, instead of returning to the taker as per usual, pushed a pass out in front of defender Michael Miller.

The right-back, starting after Lee Kilday had suffered a recurrence of his recent groin injury, made a late run from his post marking Charlie Telfer on the halfway line to meet the ball 22 yards out.

He made a powerful connection, hitting the target with a strong side-footed effort that forced McCallum to beat clear with a powerful one-armed block.

On 20 minutes, the frame of the Wee Dublin End goal was all that prevented the Ton from taking the lead, McKee cracking the crossbar with a thunderous half-volley following a cute Samuel flick into his path as he burst into the box.

Another lightning break down the left was started when, on 22 minutes, Forbes smartly recovered possession after Russell had been robbed just ahead of him and then fed the retreating left-back.

Stopping his tracks after being bailed out by his team-mate, Russell accepted the pass and then quickly shifted the ball inside to Barr.
The pitch had opened up in front of the winger to drive forward into before firing off a weak shot that never asked much of goalkeeper McCallum.

An almost identical scene played out at the opposite end when Jordan White registered the visitors’ first shot on target 25 minutes in.

Sam Stanton surged infield off his position on the right flank and poked the ball into White’s path, but the striker, surprisingly deployed on the left wing, brushed tamely at Derek Gaston.

Earlier in the week, goalkeeper Gaston had made a valuable contribution to the work done by baby charity Tommy’s.

In undertaking a challenge to visit all 41 grounds in Scottish senior football inside 24 hours, the 28-year-old raised a magnificent total of £1,711.13 – and counting.

He admitted to being tired at training on Thursday but showed those energy-sapping efforts hadn’t dulled his edge on Saturday with a miraculous save on 25 minutes.

Livi’s Dundee United loanee Charlie Telfer was the architect, wriggling clear down the right before picking out Liam Buchanan with a precise pull-back from the bye-line.

The lone striker controlled before checking inside Gasparotto’s desperate lunge and wrapping his left foot around a shot that seemed certain to ripple the net.

Gaston, though, has made a habit of producing the unexpected, pulling off those breath-taking game-changing saves that he really has no right to.

And in shooting out his right leg, he sent Buchanan’s effort spinning up and over the bar for a corner whilst adding another jaw-dropping save to his collection.

There is only so often you can rely on those saves to get you off the hook, however, and it was a real source of disappointment that Livingston took the lead from an almost indistinguishable move.

Instead of Telfer, it was the irrepressible Stanton who weaved his way around three Ton men on his way to the line before pulling back for White.

Whereas Buchanan had been stationed in the centre as his side’s focal point, White had drifted in off the flank, meaning he arrived at the front post with enough momentum to sweep home first time.

Before falling behind, the Ton saw penalty appeals waved away when McMullan stumbled as he surged into the box after stealing possession out on the right.

There was no reason for the Celtic loanee to go down and the manner in which he hit the turf looked legitimate, albeit it is difficult to deliver a definitive assessment from the distant pressbox.

Referee John McKendrick deemed McMullan to have dived, though, and cautioned the 20-year-old winger for simulation.

And the whistler looked set to infuriate the home hordes again five minutes into the second half by dismissing another spot-kick claim.

Striker Samuel, making his first start since 9 January in place of the suspended Declan McManus, eased into the box ahead of Darren Cole only to be bundled over by the former Ton defender.

McKendrick ran towards the grounded Samuel as if to book him like he had team-mate McMullan before, in a sudden and bizarre about-face, pointing sheepishly to the spot.

The change of mind appeared to be prompted by the intervention of the far better placed standside linesman.

Johnstone assumed responsibility for what was just Morton’s fourth penalty over the course of 42 competitive matches this season.

Five months had passed between spot-kicks, the most recent of which he himself coincidentally converted against Livingston back on 7 November last year.

And he maintained that 100 per cent record - Peter MacDonald and Forbes scored the other two - by coolly placing the ball into the bottom-right corner as McCallum dived the wrong way.

Although experienced official McKendrick eventually got that call correct, this as an afternoon of questionable decision-making that left both dugouts fuming at various stages.

In the space of 60 seconds, he missed a blatant Morgyn Neill barge on Samuel on the edge of the Livingston box and then snubbed appeals after Buchanan went down under an O’Ware challenge.

He did, however, award Ton a foul in a dangerous position 25 yards from goal just before the hour, which McKee whipped over the wall to force a flying save from McCallum at his top-right corner.

The final half hour was played out in frantic circumstances, with both teams wide open as the action raged from end to end in entertaining fashion.

For the hosts, Forbes worked the angle for a shot after a short-corner exchange with McMullan while Barr pulled a shot wide following McKee’s driving run and precise slide-rule pass.

On 75 minutes, Forbes fired in a dangerous flat free-kick which O’Ware nodded over the top from six yards, with Johnstone’s own attempt to meet the delivery seeming to put the defender off.

After threatening to score from a set-piece all afternoon, it was no surprise when a corner led to the winning goal eight minutes from time.

It was a more traditional flag-kick that paid off, McKee swinging the ball to the near post from the left-hand side. And just as he had done to settle the Scottish Cup tie between the sides back in January, O’Ware stole a march on his marker to get his head to the ball.

Where this goal differed was in the connection: instead of bulleting home at the near post, he found the far side of the inside netting with a fine glancing header, taking his tally to five this term.

A Livi side scrapping for their lives and livelihoods refused to accept defeat, however, and threw everything at it in the closing stages.

And the West Lothian outfit’s top marksman White will still be scratching his head as to how he didn’t complete his double to salvage a draw.

That the beanpole forward didn’t owed much to a magnificent goal-line clearance from Canadian international centre-half Gasparotto.

The defender somehow managed to get back to poke the ball past his own post after White had fastened onto McKee’s slack backpass, rounded Gaston and rolled towards the gaping goal.

Then, in the final minute, it was the Cowshed-side assistant’s raised flag for offside that denied him a last-gasp equaliser with a fine looping header from wonderkid Matthew Knox’s cross.

The call ensured Ton held on for a win that not only boosted their hopes of finishing best of the rest and exceeding their delighted owner’s expectations but also preserved their Championship status whilst putting their opponents’ in a more precarious position.