ALLAN Jenkins was the hero for Morton as his first half strike secured a 1-0 win over Dumbarton.

Ton travelled to the Strathclyde Homes stadium looking for a cup win to kick start the season.

And they got it when Jenkins latched on to a loose ball in the 26th minute to fire Ton into the second round of the ALBA Challenge Cup.

It was mostly one-way traffic in the first half as the Cappielow outfit took control of the match in the first minute.

After some good work on the left by Jim McAlister his cross was knocked back into the path of Carlo Monti.

The left-back turned inside his marker to fire in a curling right-footed shot - but it was easily dealt with by Sons keeper David McEwan.

Dumbarton hit back just five minutes later in a rare attack when Stevie Murray hit his long range shot just past the post.

But Ton hit back on 16 minutes when McAlister's spectacular over-head kick was nodded on by Peter Weatherson, almost catching out McEwan.

Davie Iron's men continued to dominate and Jenkins had the ball in the net 10 minutes later.

A great surging run by McAlister down the left resulted in a cross to the centre spot.

Weatherson got his head to it but it came off a Dumbarton defender to land at the feet of Jenkins and he kept his cool to place his shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

Stewart Greacen was lucky to escape with a yellow card after 33 minutes when he clattered Derek Carcary just outside the box.

Ross Clark hit the resulting free-kick but his effort curled just past the post.

Neil McFarlane then saw yellow after a foul on Clark five minutes before half-time.

In the second half the home side started to play better football but never really looked like grabbing the equaliser.

After the break Stevie Murray was booked on 61 minutes for a foul on Ton's Kevin Finlayson.

Both managers changed things around with Brian Wake, Erik Paartalu and Brian Graham coming on for Morton.

Meanwhile, Roddy Hunter, Ross O'Donoghue and Scott Chaplain were introduced for the Sons.

Wake could have sealed a 2-0 win for Morton right at the end when he was through on goal but McEwan pulled off a fantastic save.