DECLAN McManus revealed that he sought out special dispensation from Scotland so that he would be free to play against Airdrie on Saturday.

The Aberdeen loanee does not have permission to feature for the Ton in Scottish Cup matches and could only look on from the sidelines in the recent ties against the Diamonds.

And after he was called up for the Scotland Under-21 squad for the trip to Switzerland on Tuesday, it looked as though he would miss out again until temporary boss Ricky Sbragia granted his request.

McManus started the match and played an important role in the Ton’s victory by laying on Jamie McCluskey’s winner with a superb assist.

Speaking clad in his official issue Scotland tracksuit just before rushing away to link up with the national team, he said the victory was the perfect send-off ahead of today’s flight to Switzerland.

He said: “I need to go straight to the Beardmore Hotel in Clydebank just now. I had to get permission to play for Morton today.

“The gaffer asked Ricky [Sbragia] if I could play and he said yes. I was pushing for it as well because I really wanted to be involved.

“I missed the two cup ties recently so didn’t want to miss any more games and asked the gaffer to ask Ricky.

“I was supposed to meet up with the 21s last night [Friday] but Ricky told me just to meet up with them after the game, so that’s me heading there now before we leave for Switzerland on Monday.

“It’s massive to be involved, a great feeling to get called up for your national team. It’s an amazing team. We’ve got boys with serious class and I’m sure we’ll go over and give Switzerland a hard game.

“Today’s result was a good way to head into that. I thought I did well. We were on top in the first half and had more of the ball.

“We heard in the dressing room that we had gone top. But that means nothing. If we’re top in May, that’s when it will matter. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”