The Stark’s Park outfit scored from a corner and then a long throw which caused chaos in the Morton box before Jason Thomson bundled into the net in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

As well as the set-pieces, a key part of the Kirkcaldy side’s approach is also to hit targetman Jon Daly and play off the second balls, and McKinnon makes no apologies for playing to the Irish striker’s strengths.

He said: “Jon is a massive asset. He’s experienced, he’s a big unit, he wins headers and causes panic in opposition boxes.

“It’s a part of the game we utilise and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’ve got somebody with that talent, you utilise it. He’s getting fitter, he’s getting stronger, and I think he was very unlucky with a header that went just past the post. I’m delighted with Jon. We need that something different in the box. We can’t all be tidy little football players, and to win games, sometimes you’ve got to win games ugly.

“I said that when I came here: You have to figure out ways to win games. My job is to try and find ways to win matches.

“When we got the goal chopped off [on 93 minutes] and we got another throw in on the left, I thought: ‘Let’s get this in the box and have a go’.

“I was actually screaming at Jason [Thomson] to get in the box because I just had that feeling we’d score, and we did.

“I thought it was gone [before that] but football’s a brilliant game, isn’t it? We got the winner in the last minute and we’re obviously delighted.

“It was a tough game. Morton are a decent side with good players, and that is something I said before the game. It took us 30 minutes to get into it and it was frustrating for me. In the next 15 minutes we did well and in the second half we were a bit better. Not a million times better, but we were better. It was great character to keep going right to the wire and get a great three points, and I’m really delighted with the boys.” McKinnon set up in a 4-4-2 formation to combat how he anticipated Morton would line-up, and although it wasn’t as he expected, he still felt his system proved effective. He added: “I was actually a bit surprised when they named their team [because] it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

“I thought a 4-4-2 would be the answer today to shut down their two wingers: Bobby Barr, who I know well, and the boy [Stefan] McCluskey.

“We did that quite well to be fair because Bobby was quite quiet and so was McCluskey, but they are a decent side so we knew we’d have to dig in today and the boys certainly did that.”