MORTON secured only their second away point of the season with a hard-fought 0-0 draw against fellow strugglers Partick Thistle at Firhill.

The match was not one for the purist though, as the sides slogged through an uneventful 90 minutes in which there were very few real shots on target.

After a slow start, Martin Grehan brought the game to life in the eighth minute when he turned David MacGregor inside out and forced Colin Stewart to make a superb fingertip save with a fine curling effort.

Thistle seemed to take encouragement from this and almost opened the scoring a minute later when Grehan cut the ball back for Liam Buchanan eight yards from goal.

But the Thistle frontman's side-footed effort was weak and Kevin McKinlay was on hand to clear off the line.

Brian Hodge smashed a wild shot high over the crossbar in the 17th minute, before Buchanan glanced a header wide shortly afterwards as the hosts continued to look the more likely side to break the deadlock.

Yet it was Morton who came closest to scoring when, just after the half-hour, Darren Young's deflected shot from the edge of the box looped up off a defender and looked to have Thistle goalkeeper Scott Fox beaten before agonisingly landing on the roof of the net.

Michael Tidser went closer still in the 42nd minute with a 30-yard free-kick which had his ex-Celtic youth team-mate Fox scrambling across to claw the ball out of the top corner.

The second half was a scrappier affair, with Thistle adding an element of forcefulness to their play.

And Jags defender Willie Kinniburgh demonstrated this more physical approach when he was cautioned for a wild sliding challenge on Allan Jenkins just 33 seconds after the restart.

Jenkins was at the heart of the action again in the 49th minute when his cross appeared to be knocked out of play by Jackie McNamara's hand.

But referee Brian Winter ignored the penalty pleas and awarded a corner to howls of derision from the Ton fans seated behind the goal.

The ex-Stranraer man was proving particularly influential at this stage and it was he who laid the ball into Brian Graham's path on the hour mark.

The young striker failed to notch what would have been his third goal in four matches, dragging his shot harmlessly wide of goal from the edge of the box.

Three minutes later, the home side were fortunate to escape unpunished as Winter failed to notice Young taking an elbow to the head in an aerial joust.

The Ton midfielder was forced to leave the field to receive a bandage for a wound that would later require stitches.

Ian McCall's men should have taken the lead in the 66th minute when Hodge sent Grehan racing through on goal with an intelligent ball over the top.

Grehan, who Allan Moore had previously signed for Stirling Albion, held off the attentions of Stuart McCaffrey but contrived to screw his shot wide of the upright with the goal gaping.

The match then hit a 25-minute lull in which both teams struggled to string a coherent passing move together as a forgettable fixture petered towards an almost-inevitable goalless conclusion.

Both sides got what they deserved when the final whistle blew, and despite the lack of attractive free-flowing football, Morton's poor away record means it is they who will be happier with the point.