REPORT: Stirling Albion 0 Morton 2

The victory was the second stage of the post-Brechin recovery — a process which would require the stars to align in Ton’s favour.

After falling four points behind Stranraer and three behind Forfar Athletic, nothing short of four wins out of four would be good enough for Jim Duffy’s men.

And even then they would still be reliant on their title rivals slipping up over the course of their own respective run-ins.

It was a case of better late than never as they started their search for redemption by scoring three times in the final 12 minutes to beat Stenhousemuir 3-2 while Stranraer lost away at Dunfermline.

On Saturday, Ton experienced serendipity for a second successive weekend when Dick Campbell’s Loons dropped the ball at Peterhead, losing 1-0, whilst they were beating the Binos at Forthbank.

The combination of results saw the Cappielow club move ahead of erstwhile leaders Forfar into second on goal difference.

Stevie Aitken’s side kept themselves one point ahead of the Greenock men and moved one clear in first place thanks to a 3-2 win against Stenny.

Yet it also means Morton are now a solitary point off top spot with their destiny back in their own hands just a fortnight after slipping off the pace if not quite out of the race.

All this has served up a monumental meeting against the Blues set for this coming Saturday in what is arguably the football club’s most important match since facing Dundee United back in 1996.

But for this to all come to fruition, the Greenock men first had to dispose of already relegated Stirling Albion.

It wasn’t quite the routine victory that many might well have expected against a side with nothing to play for but personal pride.

In actual fact, the visitors had in-form goalkeeper Derek Gaston to thank for preventing them from falling behind to a seemingly liberated Binos in the first half.

On four minutes, he was off his line like a flash to beat Chris Paton to Mark Russell’s underhit backpass and smash the ball out of touch despite looking second favourite.

The custodian has produced some breathtaking saves in recent months, and, although of the more unorthodox variety, his stop on six minutes was up there with the best.

A simple angled pass from out in the left dropped in behind the Ton defence and sat up perfectly for Paton just eight yards out.

The 20-year-old forward allowed the ball to bounce and then met the ball with a thunderous mid-air connection that had 1-0 written all over it.

Although it may have looked as though he knew little about the point-blank range block, Gaston instinctively moved to his right and got his body in the way of the piledriver.

He had bravely taken the full brunt of the piledriver on the throat and was left gagging and clutching his windpipe on his knees as the game raged on.

It was a truly astounding save, but his work was far from done and he made another unconventional if effective contribution on 20 minutes.

Dealing with Phil Johnston’s stinging, right-footed strike from the left of the box, Gaston beat the ball down and then juggled over Paton’s over eager, follow-up challenge.

On 26 minutes, the Ton skipper stretched every sinew of his considerable frame to claw Gordon Smith’s powerful rising drive out at his top-right corner.

The game was wide open, however, and Duffy’s men managed to cause a few flutters in the home ranks.

But it would be fair to say that the closest they came to scoring in the opening half hour was through former Cappielow left-back Kevin McKinlay. The defender’s passback had a bit too much on it on 28 minutes and left 17-year-old goalkeeper Cammy Binnie in a flap as he desperately hacked clear off his own line.

It had been a very tentative beginning for the title challengers but they slowly felt their way into the game on the bobbly playing surface and settled, taking control for the remainder of the half.

Stirling’s narrow 4-3-1-2 formation was giving Mark Russell plenty of opportunity to create attacking overloads down the left, and he needed little invitation to exploit the space.

The young full-back’s deliveries were a little hit and miss, but he produced a moment of magic on 36 minutes to fashion both of Morton’s best openings of the first 45 minutes.

Weaving his way in off the left into the centre and then slightly towards the left again, the 19-year-old left fly with a stinging shot from the edge of the box.

A well-positioned Binnie got both hands behind the ball to push up high into the air and, seemingly, behind for a corner.

But to everyone’s surprise the ball stayed live, dropping like a stone vertically and clipping the front of the crossbar to rebound into the six-yard box. An unsuspecting Ross Caldwell drifted in right on cue but seemed to be taken by surprise and headed over the open goal and onto the roof of the net.

Binnie was making his first start between the sticks, and he was pressed into action again by Sean Crighton, right, three minutes later The big defender met a Ross Forbes free-kick with a powerful header that the teenage custodian did well to arch back, grasp and keep hold of on the line despite keen attention from Declan McManus.

News filtered through that Forfar were losing at Peterhead, and it might just have been the boost Ton needed as they took it up a notch with a more direct style at the beginning of the second half.

Six minutes in, Jamie McCluskey released McManus on the right, and, in an almost identical manner to the effort that was parried out for the winner last week, he fizzed a cross-cum-shot a whisker wide.

In spite of their spirited display, there was always a sense that with the Binos already doomed to life in League Two, the victory would be a formality if the visitors could get themselves in front. And Jamie McCluskey made the all-important breakthrough to set them on the road to three points on 53 minutes.

After Ricki Lamie had seen a header from a Forbes corner cleared off the line and back into the danger area, McManus reacted smartly by nodded down to the wideman in space.

The older McCluskey sibling could have snatched at the chance but demonstrated textbook technique to set his body shape and calmly lash past Binnie from just outside the six-yard box.

Binnie was beaten again six minutes later, and it was a goal that came through a combination of McManus’s persistence, predatory instincts and clinical finishing.

Ton’s top scorer seized on a moment of indecision from Craig Comrie, pouncing to rob him of the ball as he dallied in possession 25 yards out.

McManus then advanced, rolling the ball with the sole of his boot to nonchalantly tease Motherwell loanee Adam Cummins before placing low past a prone Binnie into the bottom-right corner.

It was a landmark 20th goal of the campaign for the marksman and one that gave his side some breathing space.

They settled a little too much, though, and the aptly named Andy Stirling, who had so tormented them at Cappielow in the first half in March, looked to take advantage.

That Dunfermline have allowed the lively forward to leave on loan defies belief in all honesty, and he was picking up great positions in space between the lines.

On 80 minutes, he took possession in behind the Ton midfield and left their unprotected back four retreating rapidly as he advanced to the edge of the box unopposed.

But Gaston came to rescue, shooting out his foot to repel the low drive. He then did superbly well to smother Greg Hurst’s low cross from the right after the sub had been fed by Stirling following another dribble.

Those contributions not only preserved his 12th shut-out of the season but more importantly prevented what would have surely proved a very nervy finale.

In the event, Ton boss Duffy dropped sub Thomas O’Ware into midfield after initially deploying him as a targetman, which served to snuff out the Stirling threat.

All that mattered was the outcome, though, and this vital victory pushed Ton right back into the thick of things at the top and really shaped up an epoch-making clash at Stair Park next Saturday.