MORTON extended their unbeaten start to the season to six games after playing out a 1-1 draw with Raith Rovers on Saturday.

After three league games and three cup ties - all but one of which they faced on their travels - Ton's record reads: won four, drawn two, lost zero, scored 19 and conceded just two.

A further measure of the Cappielow club's progress this season is that many of those of a Ton persuasion in attendance at Stark's Park came away feeling slightly disappointed to be leaving Kirkcaldy with just a point.

And it must not be forgotten that this side was, Gregory Tade and Stephen Simmons aside, for all intents and purposes the same one which led the First Division for the majority of last season.

The match itself was almost an entire role reversal of last week's 2-1 win over Livingston. On that occasion, Ton controlled the opening half hour before surrendering dominance for the remainder of the 90 minutes.

On Saturday, however, Ton started slowly and looked particularly susceptible to John Baird's pace and Joe Hamill's delivery from wide on the left.

Rovers twice had the ball in the net in the first quarter of an hour but both were rightly ruled out for offside.

Ton's defensive line were playing a dangerous game in attempting to step out and play for the linesman's flag, particularly with livewire former St Mirren striker Baird constantly lurking on the shoulder of the last man.

Ample warning was served in the 29th minute when Allan Walker's quick free-kick sent Stephen Reynolds scampering clear, but the teenage St Johnstone loanee skewed well wide after managing to outpace Marc Smyth.

The threat went unheeded, and a flat-footed Ton defence was dissected again when Baird sent Reynolds clear with a perfectly-weighted through ball.

Reynolds - a Rothesay-born forward who was once a Morton youth player - hooked home after Colin Stewart managed to get a hand to an initial attempt to round him, and thereby ensured that a former player would come back to haunt the visitors, regardless of Brian Graham's enforced absence.

Morton then survived another scare when Reynolds flashed an inviting centre across the six-yard box, which Danny Thomson swiped at with his left boot but somehow failed to connect.

Yet, despite the hosts' supremacy, Ton found themselves back on level terms just seven minutes later. Laurie Ellis could only head Ross Forsyth's deep cross as far as the edge of the box.

David O'Brien seized on Rovers' failure to react, forcing a header down to Paul Di Giacomo, who let the ball bounce before lashing across David McGurn and into the far corner to take his tally to six goals in six games.

Ton were visibly buoyed by the goal and finished the half firmly in the ascendancy, with Michael Tidser orchestrating play in the middle of the park.

With the interval looming, the captain for the day attempted to equal his goal against Livi last week with a strike from a similar position, but his effort fizzed just wide of the post.

Then, five minutes after the restart, his former Celtic team-mate, Darren McGeouch, watched in agony as his own rising drive from distance beat McGurn but flew narrowly over the bar.

Peter MacDonald passed up a gilt-edged opportunity in the 58th minute when he pounced on Ellis's failure to control a McGurn pass and, with his eyes firmly fixed on goal, he attempted to curl the ball beyond the keeper.

But his shot was well saved by McGurn, ensuring he would regret his decision to go it alone rather than square for strike partner Andy Jackson, who was perfectly placed to score.

The chance proved to be the visitors' best of the match, and much like Livingston last week, Ton continued to force the play without providing the necessary cutting edge in the final third.

McGeouch tested McGurn with another long-range effort and O'Brien had strong penalty claims turned down by referee Charlie Richmond when he was hauled back inside the box, but there would be no further scoring.

The draw, however, secured another impressive away point which leaves Allan Moore and his men sitting in third place in the table, while setting them up nicely for tomorrow night's monumental cup-tie against St Mirren.