MORTON were left cursing referee Craig Charleston on Saturday after his decision to award Raith Rovers a controversial penalty proved pivotal in this 2-1 loss at Stark’s Park.

Match officials and their decisions are regularly apportioned the bulk of the blame for negative results the world over in football. They are the game’s fall guys, a convenient scapegoat.

But Saturday was one of those days when a club - manager, players, and supporters - are entitled to feel aggrieved by a contentious call that was undoubtedly crucial to the eventual outcome.

Neither side had been in sparkling form, but with less than a quarter of the game to go, Kenny Shiels’ men were leading through a Rowan Vine wonder-strike.

There was disaffection at the opposite end. The home fans weren’t slow in expressing their discontent as their favourites struggled to create anything of note in the second half.

They looked very much a side whose own recent form was actually less favourable than their rock-bottom opponents’.

In fact, a couple of minutes before the equalising goal, this reporter was so sure of Morton’s impending success that I had begun running permutations and scenarios through my head.

“With Cowdenbeath losing at Dumbarton and Morton winning here, that would make the gap 10 points,” I pondered with Morton’s Stuart Brown, who was providing official Twitter updates.

“Then Morton could beat Cowdenbeath at Central Park on Tuesday 25 March: seven points, and then win their game in hand to bring it down to four!” But no sooner had that thought been expressed aloud, Charleston pointed to the spot after Marc Fitzpatrick and Grant Anderson fell to the ground inside the box after a tussle.

The pair tangled as Anderson attempted to drive beyond Fitzpatrick. From the admittedly poor vantage point in the mainstand, it looked neither a foul or inside the box.

It was a view that seemed to be shared by most in the press box and certainly amongst the Morton contingent gathered behind the goal.

As it happened, substitute Greig Spence stepped up and swept the spot-kick high into the net to restore parity and instigate a swing in momentum.

Although they could have reacted better to the leveller, for a confidence-shot side struggling desperately at the wrong end of the table it was a debilitating blow.

And the hosts, took full advantage, with Spence adding his and his side’s second 10 minutes from time to end their three-month search for three points.

The Cappielow club, meanwhile, have now gone more than two months since last tasting victory and have lost three on the bounce. After two consecutive defeats, Shiels experimented with an orthodox 4-4-2 formation in a recent reserve match against Airdrie.

With his side inactive that weekend, the Ton boss sent out was in essence a first-team and was relatively satisfied to see them run out 3-2 winners at the Excelsior Stadium.

On that particular occasion, natural wide players David O’Brien and Dougie Imrie occupied the central midfield berths.

Fouad Bachirou’s one-match suspension saw O’Brien deployed there again versus Raith, while Imrie returned to the side after a ban of his own, starting wide on the left.

On the opposite flank, there was a spot for David Robertson who was returning after injury had ruled him out of the last match at Dundee. He replaced Barrie McKay, unavailable due to a foot problem.

Vine played up front at the Excelsior Stadium and impressed as he scored a double despite playing for only 45 minutes.

And the former Hibs forward kept up his form by giving Ton an 18th-minute lead with a sensational finish fit to grace any game at any level.

Darren Cole’s raking long ball sent Archie Campbell racing clear down the right. The speedy hitman, back in after he was relegated to the bench up in Dundee, controlled and rolled back to Vine.

The Engishman’s first touch wasn’t the best but teed the ball up perfectly, and he lashed a stunning, swerving strike past Lee Robinson and into the top left corner from the right of the 18-yard box.

But the first indication that referee Charleston may have a bearing on the afternoon came on the half hour.

The whistler had shown an eagerness to reach for the cards in the early going, cautioning Cole, Imrie and Raith’s Callum Booth inside the opening 27 minutes.

But when the Raith left-back clattered Robertson just three minutes after picking up his original booking Charleston hesitated and let him off the hook, refusing to flash that second yellow.

The hosts began to push for an equaliser towards the end of the half but were either wayward in their efforts or found no way past Derek Gaston in the Ton goal. On 28 minutes he was forced to get a strong hand to Liam Fox’s dipping volley to ensure the ball did not drop in under his crossbar.

The Ton custodian made another smart save on 38 minutes, blocking Gordon Smith’s hooked effort from close range after Jason Thomson’s low cross had found him unmarked inside the six-yard box.

And in first-half stoppage time, Gaston scrambled low to his right to smother a John Baird snapshot as he completed a hat-trick of stops to preserve his side’s lead going in at the break.

Those three stops were punctuated by a wild and aimless drive from Anderson which flew high over the top which really sparked the home fans’ frustrations.

Rovers were mercilessly booed off at the break, the support furious to see their struggling side trailing rock-bottom Ton.

Morton reappeared for the second half minus Imrie, who was replaced with Aidan Fulton at the interval after picking up a quadriceps injury towards the end of the half.

But they started well, and when Campbell unleashed a powerful, rising drive which stung Robinson’s palms, the home support’s unease quickly resurfaced.

Goalscorer Vine was next to test the ex-Ton goalkeeper when he ghosted in unnoticed at the far post to meet Jamie McCormack’s deep cross on 58 minutes.

He side-footed down and into the ground with his left foot and Robinson made a flicked up an arm to flip the ball over the top for a corner.

Sub Fulton fired over a low and flat flag-kick which Liam Fox headed straight up into the air. The ball then dropped like a stone, forcing Robinson to awkwardly turn over his own bar under pressure.

Robertson took a different tack from the resultant corner, whipping over a right-footed inswinger on this occasion.

It originally came to nothing but broke back to him in a promising position. His placed effort lacked the power and direction to really test Robinson.

Although it would be an exaggeration to suggest it was a procession towards Robinson’s goal. Ton were looking the more likely side.

Grant Murray’s men, meanwhile, had created nothing of note in the opening 20 minutes of the second half.

The suffocating atmosphere of their support’s expectations was clearly weighing heavily on them, and so it was hugely significant when referee Charleston pointed to the spot on 67 minutes.

Spence, who was sent on just seven minutes into the second half with Raith offering little attacking threat, stepped up and stroked high into the top left corner while Gaston dived low to the right.

It not only levelled the scores but released a pressure valve and brought about a significant shift in momentum.

Fulton could’ve quickly piled it all back on again when he exchanged passes with Fitzpatrick and advanced on Robinson.

The keeper was alert to the danger, though, and crucially raced from his line to narrow the angle before plunging to his left to prevent Fulton from slipping the ball under his body.

The save seemed to energise Raith and they looked to have taken the lead on 76 minutes when Spence flicked Cardle’s low cross beyond Gaston.

But fellow sub Lewis Vaughan somehow managed to prevent the ball from finding the net when he popped up on the line to inadvertently block with his attempt to turn into the net.

Ton were rocking and Spence completed the turnaround on 80 minutes when he bagged his second of the afternoon to fulfil the prophetic prediction of young mascot Jack Hopton.

The seven-year-old predicted a 2-1 home win and his favourite player, Spence, to net both goals when asked for a score on the microphone before the match.

And his hero didn’t disappoint, controlling a simple John Baird pass over the top and far too easily forcing his way past McCormack before slamming beyond Gaston.

Stuart Findlay almost snatched a share of the spoils when he met a Fulton corner with a powerful hooked volley, but Robinson acrobatically flipped behind to ensure the points stayed in Kirkcaldy.

But you couldn’t help but feel that they would have been coming back down to Greenock had Charleston seen things differently in the 67th minute.