MORTON are out but not down today following a spirited League Cup showing against Premiership Partick Thistle last night.

Just two seasons ago these clubs slugged it out in a hard-fought First Division title race from which Partick eventually emerged triumphant.

Since then they have charted startling divergent courses.

While the Maryhill men were consolidating their status in Scottish football’s top flight with a 10th place finish, Morton suffered a humiliating relegation to League One.

And so it was with two divisions separating them that they went into last night’s League Cup second round tie.

Ton’s plummet has resulted in wholesale changes: not one of last night’s starting XI was playing for the club’s first-team when these sides last met in April 2013.

Of the matchday squad, only substitutes Derek Gaston and Thomas O’Ware faced Thistle under Allan Moore’s charge.

Firhill boss Alan Archibald, on the other hand, has retained a whole host of players from their title winning season, with eight of their squad remaining from the 2012-13 campaign.

Yet those contrasting fortunes did not manifest on the pitch. Over the piece, there was not a huge gulf in quality between the two teams.

In fact, Morton were on the front foot straight from kick-off, Stefan McCluskey flashing a teasing cross just beyond the far post after Declan McManus had sent him clear on the left.

The visitors soon established control of possession but found it difficult to break down Ton’s well-drilled defence.

In fact, when the next clear-cut chance arose, it was at the opposite end and as a result of a swift counter-attack in which Reece Hands sent McManus scuttling forward down the inside right.

The Aberdeen loanee’s shot at goal was blocked and sent looping up and over the top for a corner that came to nothing.

Partick’s widemen, Kallum Higginbotham and Steven Lawless, gradually came to life, and after twisting and turning out on the right, Lawless picked out Conrad Balatoni with a cross.

The gnarled centre-half rose highest just outside the six-yard box but failed to hit the target with his header.

In midfield, Hands was given his first start since the Petrofac Cup tie against Berwick Rangers at the beginning of the month.

The Englishman looked rusty on that occasion and also struggled to settle in the opening half hour last night.

Usually so proficient when going for goal from outside the box, he is yet to find his shooting boots this term and dragged a low drive well wide on 24 minutes.

Lawless took aim from a similar distance around 30 seconds later. Although his effort was more accurate it lacked power and Nicolas Caraux dived low to his left to make a straightforward save.

Chances were at a premium, however, with Morton working incredibly hard to put pressure on their opponents as well as defending diligently.

The combative nature of the midfield battle eventually saw Thistle’s Ghanaian Abdul Osman booked after a series of overly aggressive challenges.

That is not to say that the hosts were being bullied. Up front McManus, who was watched by Dons boss Derek McInnes, was using his deceptive wiry strength to pose the visiting defence problems.

At the back, Sean Crighton was incredibly aggressive in the air — although a little too rushed in his distribution — while Lee Kilday and Ricki Lamie were combative in the full-back positions.

Rangy right-back Kilday was particularly impressive, and it was from one of his long-legged, swashbuckling bursts forward that the former Hamilton man won a free-kick in a dangerous area.

With Joe McKee on the bench, Hands took the kick and fizzed a fantastic delivery across the face of the six-yard box.

Stefan McCluskey had ghosted in totally unchecked but failed to get enough purchase on his header and could only watch in agony as it glanced off his forehead and skewed wide.

It would prove to be a telling moment in the tie. McCluskey failed to convert in the 43rd minute. Partick’s winning goal arrived one minute into first half stoppage time.

A raking switch from James Craigen found Stephen O’Donnell advanced on the right flank, and he fed striker Kris Doolan with a first-time volley.

Stood with his back to goal, Doolan too easily hoodwinked Stefan Milojevic with a sharp turn to manufacture space to roll a right-footed shot across goal and into the bottom-left corner.

It was a harsh lesson in taking your chances for Morton. Buoyed by the goal, Archibald’s men came out flying for the second half.

Caraux was called into action on 52 minutes when Higginbotham placed a shot at goal from the edge of the box. It posed no particular problem to the Frenchman, who gathered with ease.

His next save, also from Higginbotham and just 60 seconds later, was right out of the top drawer, however.

After pouncing on a loose Lamie pass, Lawless drove down the right and fired over a cross which found Higginbotham lurking around 12 yards out. The former Falkirk forward took a touch to control and unleashed a stinging drive that Caraux did superbly well to beat down with a brave block.

The action was coming thick and fast at this stage, and Stefan McCluskey was left kicking himself after missing another gilt-edged opportunity.

On the positive front, it was an opening McCluskey manufactured for himself with his tenacious hassling of the opposition defence.

Biting at a sluggish Balatoni’s ankles, he picked the defender’s pocket, leaving him one-on-one with Paul Gallacher.

He leaned back and placed the ball beyond the former Scotland international – and the right-hand upright. It was a horrible miss and a huge moment in the tie.

If it seemed preordained that this would not be Stefan McCluskey’s night, you could consider it confirmed on 70 minutes.

After McManus had headed a Lamie long ball down into his path, McCluskey nipped in ahead of Gallacher and touched the ball past the Thistle keeper before going down under the challenge.

Referee Stephen Finnie was unimpressed and cautioned the Ton forward for simulation. It was hard to judge from the press bench but the instinctive feeling was that it was a foul.

Jim Duffy introduced subs McKee and O’Ware for the final 20 minutes or so, as Ton sought the equaliser that would send the tie to extra-time.

They were pushed back in their own half as this stage, though, with Thistle right-back O’Donnell so advanced that Ton left-mid Mark Russell was pinned down in the left full-back area.

Partick had plenty of possession in advanced areas but posed little in the way of a real attacking threat. There was never the sense they were likely to hurt the hosts.

The Ton, meanwhile, missed out the midfield and looked to long balls over the top and into the channels to try to get up the park — but without much success.

Apart from two O’Ware headers that were comfortably held by Gallacher, the hosts never quite looked like levelling things up.

That is not to say that they did not give a good account of themselves, though. They matched a side sat two divisions above them for the most part and limited their chances over the 90 minutes.

And should Stefan McCluskey have taken one or both of the openings that came his way then there could well have been an entirely different outcome.