MacDonald fires Ton into fifth round
Jonathan Mitchell • Published 9 Jan 2012 11:35
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Raith Rovers 1-2 Morton
Peter MacDonald fired Morton into the fifth round of the Scottish Cup with a heroic half-hour substitute appearance in which he inspired his side to come from behind to defeat Raith Rovers 2-1.
Six minutes after he was thrown into the action, the striker provided a sumptuous assist for Archie Campbell to cancel out Pat Clarke's first-half opener.
Then, 10 minutes later, he single-handedly completed the fight back by winning a penalty and expertly dispatching the resultant spot-kick beyond former Ton keeper David McGurn for the win.
As well as sealing Ton's place in the draw for the next round, the triumph also marked two significant milestones, as it was both the first time the Cappielow club have won three consecutive matches this season and during Allan Moore's tenure as manager.
The Ton boss achieved this despite being forced into making two personnel changes to the side which defeated Ayr United. Colin Stewart returned between the sticks following the expiry of Dominic Cervi's loan, while Derek Young filled in at right-back after Grant Evans suffered a training-ground injury on Thursday.
However, Young immediately looked like a fish out of water as new Raith signing Damian Casilinuovo beat him in the air with considerable ease to knock down to Clarke, who, in turn, flicked over Marc Smyth, causing the Northern Irishman to pull him back and accept an early booking.
Casilinuovo, who had caused Ton considerable problems at the same venue in September 2009 while on loan from Dundee United, quickly developed an understanding with Clarke despite never having played together.
With five minutes on the clock, the Argentine teed up Clarke for a shot on goal, but the Dunfermline loanee's half volley was straight down Stewart's throat.
The returning Ton keeper had any cobwebs from his time on the sidelines well and truly blown away when he was forced to make a fine reflex save to block Clarke's powerful drive from an acute angle.
And barely 60 seconds afterwards, Casilinuovo passed up a gilt-edged chance of his own when he miscued eight yards out and sent John Baird's cross sailing high over the crossbar.
It was a first 10 minutes in which Raith were bright, quick to support each other and neat in their inter-passing. Morton, meanwhile, were leaden, hesitant and ill at ease, particularly in defence.
On the rare occasions the visitors threatened, they proved wasteful in front of goal, particularly in the 14th minute when David O'Brien worked a yard of space inside the box but then flashed a poor shot high and wide.
The hosts quickly reassumed their role as the dominant force, however, and looked to have opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when Clarke followed up to score after Baird had crashed Laurie Ellis's cross against the upright.
But in the first of three key offside decisions which would go in Ton's favour, assistant referee Stuart Hodge raised his flag against Baird for the initial shot and the 'goal' was disallowed.
It would prove to be an afternoon on which the officials had their work cut out for them, and referee Steven McLean was forced into a crucial call when Baird crumpled to ground under the weight of a Smyth tackle inside the box.
He adjudged the defender to have clipped Baird's heels, and the former St Mirren striker took the kick himself but watched in agony as Stewart thrust up his left arm to block.
Unfortunately, the keeper had dived to his right and, in throwing his arm back to save, could only push the ball out in front of his goal, where Clarke had arrived quickest to slam home the rebound.
As it was, Ton could actually consider themselves lucky to go in at the break just one goal behind after surviving two close shaves in the minute preceding the break. First, Grant Murray's goal-bound volley was headed off the line by Young, and then Iain Davidson had a strike chopped off after he was ruled to be in an offside position when Baird's curling effort rebounded off Stewart's left-hand post and into his path for a tap-in.
A combination of the late scares, some harsh words from Moore and two important substitutions served to revitalise Morton in the second half.
Although he revealed after the match that Young had to be withdrawn due to injury, Moore would likely have made the decision to replace him at right-back with Peter Weatherson in any case.
Whereas Young struggled, Weatherson, who has plenty of experience at full-back, was economical in his use of the ball and offered a steadying influence which provided an important platform from which his side could build.
As a result, Campbell began to come to life and demonstrated his recent surge in confidence just 10 seconds into the second period when he attempted a Marco van Basten-esque volley which crashed into the side netting.
The livewire frontman almost profited from an inventive Tidser corner that found him in space at the front post, but he again failed to hit the target.
Moore continued to be proactive, and made his match-winning change in the form of MacDonald's 61st-minute introduction in place of Andy Jackson.
MacDonald, who had gone five games without a start, immediately demonstrated the sort of quality that was a trademark of his game in the first few months of the season by releasing Campbell with a sublime first-time pass which perfectly dissected the Rovers defence.
Campbell took one touch to steady himself before rifling an unstoppable drive beyond McGurn to restore parity and leave the game perfectly balanced.
At this stage, Ton - and MacDonald - were flying and they took the lead just nine minutes after equalising, courtesy of the second spot-kick of the game.
Murray barged MacDonald to the ground just as he burst into the box, and the former St Johnstone man made no mistake from 12 yards, blasting past McGurn to take his season's tally to 12 goals.
In the 87th minute, the hosts completed their hat-trick of disallowed goals when Baird struck the frame of the goal with an impressive effort and Allan Walker follow up was ruled out by assistant James Bee - and Ton held on.
This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 09 Jan 12
Have your say. Post a comment on this article.
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UnkilGed
111 posts
Jan 9, 14:35
Report commentI really look forward to your match reports Jonathan, as reading the report seems as good as David Francey when he did the commentating on the radio and he made you feel as if you were at the game.Top stuff.
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ericsorenson
22 posts
Jan 10, 00:59
Report commentI agree - he writes a good report. Reminds me of the Parahandy episode when they were all invited to a hielan wedding except MacPhail, so Sunny Jim comforted him by saying that afterwards they (Para Handy, Dougie and Sunny Jim) would describe the ceilidh to him "vividly". Great stuff. Well done the Ton.
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