MORTON might have departed Edinburgh empty-handed on Saturday but they were also able to leave Leith with their heads held high despite having nothing to show for their considerable efforts.

It would be hard to argue that Hibs weren’t worth the win on the balance of play over 90 minutes which they almost completely controlled.

But, at the same time, that is not to say that Jim Duffy’s underdogs don’t have the right to feel disappointed not to have taken something from the match.

The Greenock men ran themselves into the ground as they worked to contain their more fancied opponents and even carved out two of the match’s best opportunities on the counter-attack.

All that eventually separated the sides on the day was a second-half strike from Hibs substitute Jason Cummings.

That Ton almost succeeded in keeping Hibs out owed a lot to hard work, disciplined — and last-ditch — defending, and three fine saves from Derek Gaston — as well as, admittedly, riding their luck.

From the home perspective it was evident for all to see that they clearly missed the presence of creative fulcrum Scott Allan.

The circus surrounding his summer-long, will-he, won’t-he transfer to Rangers and the subsequent interest from Celtic threatened to completely overshadow Morton’s visit.

Merifully, the 23-year-old completed his move to Parkhead on the eve of the match, freeing up football to take centre stage.

But his shadow still loomed large over Easter Road as Alan Stubbs’ men toiled in their attempts to unlock the Ton in his absence.

Their first approach appeared to be to exploit fledgling full-back Mark Russell. The converted winger is still working to hone his defensive instincts and can be prone to momentary lapses in a game.

The hosts fired a succession of long diagonals in behind, and on top of, the 19-year-old Ton youth academy product.

Right winger Martin Boyle was unleashed on him too, seemingly tasked with breaking from deep on the right to support Dominique Malonga whilst running at Russell at every available opportunity.

But the teenager stood up to the test well in the early stages, prompting a rethink. There was, however, an absence of finesse about Hibs.

The majority over their first-half efforts came via hopeful crosses from out wide or speculative shots from distance.

On five minutes, Fraser Fyvie peeled off at the back post to collect a corner Gaston had punched out to the left and stood up a cross for Liam Fontaine to attack in the centre.

The towering defender climbed above everyone else but failed to get over the ball and sent his header over the bar.

Congo internationalist Malonga dragged a shot wide on 16 minutes before John McGinn fired wildly over the top.

He was off target right in front of 572 unforgiving Morton fans who weren’t slow in informing the former St Mirren man of their distaste for his erstwhile employers.

That the hosts were struggling to manufacture meaningful openings owed as much due to Morton’s tireless defensive efforts as Hibs own creative shortcomings.

In Thursday’s Tele, former Ton and Hibs defender Derek Anderson felt that if the Cappielow club could stifle the hosts in the first 20 minutes, the Easter Road crowd would grow impatient.

Right on cue, the first murmurs of discontent could be heard: groans and growls at misplaced passes and comments admitting they were ‘missing Scott Allan’.

They were offered some encouragement on 22 minutes, however, when Gaston was forced into action for the first time. Attacking full-back David Gray bombed forward and pulled back for Malonga, who scooped tamely to the Ton keeper’s right.

Rangers loanee Luca Gasparotto was looking the part on his competitive debut in the centre of the away defence.

A classy sliding interception in which he expertly hooked his foot around the ball to emerge with possession after cutting out McGinn’s slide-rule pass for Boyle on 25 minutes rightfully earned acclaim from the away support.

As the half wore on Hibs began to throw caution to the wind and attack with abandon. Their centre-halves pushed into the Ton half with the ball as they overloaded the edge of the box with bodies.

This left them increasingly exposed to any effective counter-attack, though, and they really should have been made to pay by the visitors, who hit them on the break not once but twice.

On 31 minutes, Russell was able to drive forward for first time in the match. He effortlessly breezed beyond Hibs skipper Gray by nonchalantly prodding the ball through his legs.

He continued on to the bye-line before picking out Peter MacDonald lurking around the penalty spot with a precise, low cut-back. The Ton captain didn’t quite manage to adjust his footing and open up his body as much as he would have liked and side-footed straight at Hibs keeper Mark Oxley, who beat the ball away.

Things were beginning to look somewhat more precarious at the other end as Stubbs’ side continued to pile on the pressure.

Russell put two hands on Boyle inside the box on 36 minutes and the forward went down under the contact, claiming he was shoved.

Referee Craig Charleston infuriated the former Dundee man, and his manager, by ignoring the appeals. There were also howls of derision when Ross Forbes was penalised for a similar incident right on the edge of the box shortly thereafter, with the insinuation being the foul occurred inside the area.

Nevertheless, the position of the incident – on the right-hand side of the 18-yard box – afforded the hosts a promising set-piece possibility.

McGinn took the kick, whipping a menacing cross to the far post, one that was just crying out for someone to force the ball into the net.

Gray gave it his best shot but found Gaston an impenetrable barrier as he showed razor-sharp reactions to throw up his arms to parry the full-back’s bulleted header from point-blank range.

The second of Ton’s counter raids occurred in the immediate aftermath as MacDonald did superbly well to win the ball in the air and turn the situation into a four-on-two break.

After getting the ball under control, the forward ignored options to his right and slipped the ball into the path of the overlapping McCluskey on his left.

The wideman drove on into the box and attempted to slot the ball under the outrushing Oxley but saw his hopes of breaking the deadlock dashed by the flailing limbs of the Hibs No1 At the other end, Russell was handily placed on the left-hand post to hack Gray’s angled header from a McGinn corner off the line to ensure the sides went in at the break on level terms.

Besides a fizzing 25-yard drive from McGinn that required Gaston to acrobatically flip the ball over the top, Hibs’ attempts to open Ton up were proving inadequate.

I scribbled a thought in my notebook to say that, in the absence of playmaker Allan, the hosts were crying out for Cummings to come on and inject some dynamism into their play in the final third. It was a real head-scratcher as to why Stubbs had persevered with Marvin Bartley as a sitting midfielder in a match that didn’t require it, particularly based on the pattern of play.

As it turned out, it was something that was on his mind too after watching his team fail to make the most of their stranglehold of the ball, and he sacrificed his defensive screen to introduce Cummings.

At the point he made the switch on 57 minutes, I had made a quick dash along the row to check the size of the travelling support on the attendance sheet brought to the press area by a Hibs official.

Out the corner of my eye I saw Cummings had been sent on just as I had left my seat and made a mental check of the change to record it on the teamsheet when I got back.

So instantaneous was the 20-year-old’s impact, there was also a goal that required to be taken down by the time I had retreated to my perch high in the main stand.

Within 35 second of joining the fray, Cummings had stolen into the box unchecked to slam Gray’s measured square ball past Gaston with his first touch. Morton were caught cold by the change, failing to react as Fyvie slipped a slide-rule pass beyond both Russell and McCluskey to pick out flying full-back Gray’s overlapping run around the back.

Three minutes later, Cummings got on the end of a Lewis Stevenson cross from the opposite side, but his close-range header was superbly parried by Gaston.

Duffy decided to go for it in the final quarter hour, replacing a tiring — and yellow carded — Ross Forbes with Bobby Barr whilst reshuffling his midfield to accommodate the change.

The injection of pace frightened the Edinburgh men, but despite carving out some half-chances with his direct wing play, the visitors could not find an equaliser. Birmingham City loanee Denny Johnstone hooked high over the bar as did teenage midfielder Dylan Stevenson, who replaced the injured Mark Russell 11 minutes from time.

In the end Morton had just fallen short against one of the top teams in the division at one of the most testing venues.

Despite the outcome, this newly promoted side can draw encouragement from a respectable performance ahead of Friday’s derby date with St Mirren.