REPORT: Forfar 3 Morton 2

In recent weeks the Ton had recorded three straight victories — one after extra-time — racked up 11 goals and put in a commendable performance against Premiership Partick Thistle in the League Cup.

They were on cloud nine when Thomas O’Ware netted a dramatic injury-time winner to snatch all three points up at Peterhead.

But, in the space of seven days, the exhilaration that accompanied that victory was replaced by exasperation at an inept overall performance at Station Park.

There was only one change to the line-up that picked up maximum points at Balmoor, with Stefan McCluskey in from the start in place of injured older brother Jamie.

Yet you would have been forgiven for believing this was a different group of players based on their overall performance.

Forfar winger Omar Kader was a lively presence right from the off and posed Ricki Lamie problems down the right in the opening quarter of an hour.

The former Spartans man let Ton off the hook with a few failed deliveries after he had done well to create space.

But the visitors’ biggest escape came via a bizarre call from the officials, particularly stand side linesman Craig Napier.

The assistant referee had a perfect view as McCluskey blocked a Kader cross with both hands, to the extent he appeared to almost catch the ball, but failed to flag.

But their luck ran out on 20 minutes when Sean Crighton lost the flight of a hopeful high ball into the box and could only watch in horror as Gavin Swankie reacted quickest.

Pouncing like a penalty box predator, the Forfar skipper seized on a kind break of the ball and hooked a first-time effort around Derek Gaston and into the bottom right corner.

It was a ropey opening, in which Forfar were highly effective at winning possession and quickly transitioning through the midfield to the wingers and strikers and attacking with energy and pace.

They flooded through a porous Morton midfield sorely lacking an experienced general to be a steadying influence and provide much needed presence.

That being said, the visitors steadied the ship by the half hour mark and began to pose Dick Campbell’s experienced side problems at the opposite end.

While Ton were struggling to cope with the impressive Swankie, their own dangerman was toiling against the experience and physicality of Darren Dods.

The 38-year-old Loons centre-half was no match for Declan McManus on the ground and adapted to the threat posed using the tools at his disposal.

He was all arms and elbows but cute enough about it to go unpunished, leaving McManus nursing a few bumps and bruises not to mention a chip on his shoulder.

He wasn’t slow at expressing his annoyance to referee Crawford Allan and eventually received a caution on 25 minutes for having his say one too many times.

But it was at this juncture that Jim Duffy’s men finally got their hooks in and began to take part in the game. Joe McKee started to exert some influence in the middle of the park, showing for the ball from centre-half Crighton and attempting to knit the play together.

The 21-year-old is Morton’s designated set-piece taker this season, and it was from his outswinging corner that his side managed their first notable strike at goal.

The flag-kick was headed down into the danger area by Ricki Lamie, but stop-gap striker Thomas O’Ware fired a half-volley high over the top under extreme pressure.

Like McKee, O’Ware gradually came to prominence, and twisted and turned to work space for a crack at goal 25 yards out.

His low drive was always swinging away from the target, though, and finished comfortably wide of Rab Douglas’s right-hand upright.

The former Scotland custodian got his gloves dirty for the first time on 33 minutes, gripping the ball after McKee fired a free-kick over the wall from the edge of the box.

It was a period of sustained, if not quite unrelenting, Ton control that would not go unrewarded, however.

With 37 minutes on the clock that man McManus drew his side level to take his tally to six goals in six starts for the Cappielow men.

Ref Allan wisely allowed play to go when Conor Pepper was poleaxed from behind in the process of making a tidy pirouette and the ball rolled on to O’Ware.

And the Ton No 10 made the advantage count by immediately stabbing on to McManus in space slightly to the left of centre.

Showing the prowess that has earned him a Scotland Under-21 call-up, the Aberdeen loanee took a touch to control before ruthlessly tucking the ball inside the left-hand post.

It was a goal you felt could irrevocably alter the dynamic of the match. Yet, it was the Loons who re-emerged for the second half energised and ready to take the game to their opponents.

Swankie, in particular, was in the mood, and it was he who was at the heart of Forfar’s second goal, which arrived eight minutes after the restart.

Defender Crighton was having an uncomfortable afternoon against the wideman and saw his miscued leap and header on the halfway line drop at Swankie’s feet.

Bursting clear down the left, he fired in a dangerous low cross that Danny Denholm steered through Gaston’s legs with a fine first-time finish.

Lee Kilday, right, has been one of Morton’s most consistent performers since signing in the summer, but he too was having an off day.

After impulsively diving in to a challenge just inside the Forfar half, Swankie pushed the ball inside the right-back and then surged into the gaping space left in behind.

He again picked out Denholm who improvised impressively with a backheel flick that Gaston patted forward and smothered at the second attempt.

McKee slammed a low drive into the advertising hoardings from the edge of the ‘D’ on 55 minutes, but this was entirely against the run of play.

Gaston was one of the only Ton players to be earning his corn on what was fast turning into a dismal day, beating out a Dale Hilson piledriver with a flying, two-handed save to his left.

The overall organisation of the defensive unit has been one of the most consistent and impressive aspects of this Morton side in the first month of the season. But they were at sixes and sevens on Saturday. The way the third goal developed, on 71 minutes, was alarmingly simple from a Ton perspective.

A simple, hopeful clearance found Swankie in the area on the touchline right in front of both sides’ dugouts, a patch of the field proving as treacherous as the Bermuda triangle for the away defence.

Swankie was allowed to chest down, superbly it must be said, and streak clear of a high defensive line down the Ton right.

But instead of picking out a team-mate, he arrowed in on goal and casually brushed the ball past Gaston and high into the net with the outside of his right foot.

Despite the two-goal lead, centre-half Stuart Malcolm urged Campbell’s men on, screaming that they were “not finished yet”. It was the type of leadership and experience Morton missed.

Forfar right-back Michael Dunlop glanced a header narrowly wide of the upright from Stephen Husband’s inswinging cross from the left flank.

Then, on 79 minutes, another uncomplicated up and under rather astonishingly left Hilson bearing down on Gaston, who backed off and blocked his stinging shot with another strong stop.

Duffy introduced Mark Russell, Reece Hands, and David McNeil as he sought a lifeline, and two of the trio combined to give Ton something to grab onto in the final minute.

Injecting some much-needed thrust and imagination, teenager Russell surged to the bye-line and fizzed across the face of goal.

Douglas got a touch to the cross but only succeeded in pushing the ball to Hands, who side-footed against the 42-year-old custodian and into the net from inside the six-yard box.

It was the English midfielder’s first goal in close to a year — he last found the net at Livingston on 14 September last season — and offered his side a slim hope of snatching a draw.

But Forfar survived a couple of late scares, with Douglas gratefully grasping McManus’s rising drive, to hold on for the three points they, and skipper Swankie in particular, richly deserved.