BACK to lifting silverware, back in the Championship, back to where they belong – and almost certainly back to facing Renfrewshire rivals St Mirren four times a season.

In an occasion dubbed ‘Helicopter Saturday’ they overcame Peterhead in front of a Cappielow crowd of 6,024 to claim the League One title on the final day of the campaign.

It was the club’s 10th league title in their 141 years in existence and their first since winning the Second Division back in season 2006/07.

But, most significantly perhaps, is the fact that it came just one year since they were dumped out of the second tier after a dismal campaign.

Last May the club was a national laughing stock when they went down to a dismal 10-2 defeat at Hamilton Accies to put the seal on a miserable season.

But in the space of a year the Ton have gone from chumps to champions. From rock bottom to redemption.

A new-look team of hungry young players proud to wear the shirt and led by a determined and honest management team fought all the way to the final day to claim the title.

Their reward? A return to a second tier with a mouth-watering roster that will likely include the Saints as well as two of Motherwell, Hibs and Rangers. Ton and St Mirren last competed in the same division in season 1999/00 – a full 15 years have passed since Tom Hendrie’s side won 2-0 at Cappielow on 18 March 2000.

It is remarkable and rather heart rending to think there are teenage Ton supporters who have never experienced the two sides going head to head on league duty in their lifetime.

And these were all reasons why bouncing back at the first time of asking was of critical importance to the club. Failure would have been disastrous and likely to have far-reaching consequences.

That’s why the stakes were so high and the pressure so intense going into a match in which the margins were wafer thin at the top of League One.

After stringing together three wins in a row, Jim Duffy’s men had hauled themselves to the top of the table after slipping off the pace with a distressing home defeat to Brechin City.

They were level on points with second-placed Forfar, who hosted relegation play-off threatened Ayr United, and led the way by just three goals. Stranraer were two points further back in third spot. Win and the chopper would almost certainly be destined for the Battery Park barring a Loons rout of the Honest Men.

And on six minutes, only an early goal-line clearance from Steven Noble prevented Greenock boy Sean Crighton from blowing the roof off the Cowshed, from where he had supported the team in a similar game in 2003.

The centre-half met Ross Forbes’ inswinging corner with a bullet header from six yards that Blue Toon captain Noble, positioned on the left post, managed to deflect up over the bar with his thigh. Forbes’ dead ball delivery was causing the visitors problems in the early stages, with another flag-kick unceremoniously hacked clear as the Ton turned the screw.

Yet it was from a seemingly well-rehearsed corner of their own that Peterhead stunned Cappielow on 17 minutes.

Noble delivered from the right, Derek Gaston was blocked off by Rory McAllister as he attempted to claim whilst Gary McDonald stole in round the back and headed inside the far post.

It was a poor goal to concede and left an eerie silence hanging over the Greenock ground as the thought it might not be Ton’s day after all began to pervade even the most optimistic minds, especially with Forfar having taken the lead after just six minutes at Station Park.

But the game swung right back in their favour within four minutes when, in a game-defining moment, central defender Scott Ross was sent off for blatantly hauling down Declan McManus. The Aberdeen loanee had caught the visitors’ back four napping and stole in behind, forcing Ross to pull him back, which referee Euan Anderson deemed to have denied a goal-scoring opportunity.

Peter MacDonald lined up the free-kick 22 yards out and curled a sublime free-kick up over the wall towards the top-left corner. Agonisingly, the ball clipped the outside of the junction of bar and post.

It was one-way traffic now, though, as the Ton, buoyed by their one-man advantage, stepped up their search for the all-important equaliser.

Left-back Mark Russell was taking advantage of the extra space and fizzed a fierce drive narrowly wide on 27 minutes.

He will feel he should have at least hit the target seven minutes later when he slashed at a chance presented to him by Jamie McCluskey as he sprinted into the acres of empty space on the left. As seems to occur often on the big occasions, though, it was the most unlikely of heroes who stepped out from the shadows to make a massive contribution. Michael Miller had not scored at all this season but chose the perfect occasion to open his account for the campaign.

And in real style too. Accepting a pass inside from central-midfield partner Forbes 25 yards out, he shifted the ball out from his body and drilled an unstoppable drive past Graeme Smith low to his left.

It was at this moment absolutely everything changed. Everything turned in the Ton’s favour in the space of a couple of minutes to such an extent that it didn’t actually seem real.

At almost the exact time Miller levelled with his sensational strike, Ayr simultaneously equalised through Jon-Paul McGovern. Two minutes later Dick Campbell’s men were reduced to 10 men. The news sent tremors through the crowd, and they erupted when, just three minutes after drawing level, the Ton took the lead.

Just as Miller had before him, Russell accepted a Forbes pass 25 yards from goal and unleashed a shot that Smith clumsily fumbled up into the roof of the net. The Peterhead keeper had looked ropey since kick-off and this was a blunder that Cappielow pressbox regular Kenny MacDonald had predicted was coming early on.

The first-half drama didn’t end there, though, oh no. Because almost as soon as the celebrations died down the excitement hit fever pitch as it emerged Ayr had taken the lead against the Loons.

The turn of events was so completely incredible that it could have convinced the staunchest atheist that not only is there a high power but that this god is quite obviously a Morton fan too.

Perhaps more incredible was to hear a euphoric Cowshed collective blast out a passionate rendition of the Somerset Park anthem ‘Ayr, Ayr, Super Ayr … Super Ayr United’ in gratitude.

The adrenaline rush was overwhelming and Morton emerged supercharged for the second half, exploding out of the traps in search of the goals to wrap up the championship.

McManus watched a deflected cross spin up and brush the face of the bar and also crashed a left-footed drive wide, Jamie McCluskey had a follow up saved by Smith and MacDonald saw a header cleared off the line by David Cox all in the space of 12 minutes.

The pace couldn’t last forever, though, and the Blue Toon came back into things around the hour mark. Ex-Ton man Jamie Stevenson stung Gaston’s palms with a 45 yard free-kick that was almost identical to one he scored into the same goal for Airdrie in a Scottish Cup tie back in 2011.

The Ton shot-stopper was also forced into action by Balmoor talisman Rory McAllister and Stevenson again, but dealt with their similar curled efforts with relative ease.

Nerves were jangling at this point, but when the latest update from Angus revealed Alan Forrest had fired Ayr into a 3-1 lead, the celebrations began. But the party only really got into full swing when, rather fittingly, star man McManus wrapped up the win six minutes from time in what could very well be his last game for the club.

Pouncing on Peterhead’s failure to deal with a Russell pass over the top, he waltzed round keeper Smith to his left and side-footed into the empty net. It was the striker’s 23rd goal of a campaign in which he had finished the top scorer at the club as well as in League One. As well as earning two Scotland Under-21s caps, he was named in the PFA Scotland League One Team of the Year before winning Player of the Year prize at the annual awards bash last night.

The full-time whistle was met with a passionate pitch invasion in which the celebrating players were engulfed before captain MacDonald later hoisted the trophy aloft to a deafening roar.

It has been a rollercoaster ride, of that there can be no doubt, but it was ultimately a successful season that ended on an incredible high. Roll on 2015/16!