PETER MacDonald marked the first start of his second spell with Morton by scoring the goal that earned his side a share of the spoils with League One strugglers Ayr United on Saturday.

A couple of weeks down the line, the hitman would likely have walked away from an afternoon like this with the matchball tucked under his arm after claiming a hat-trick.

It was quickly clear the qualities that made him a fan favourite in his first stint were still there, with his intelligent movement and striking instincts allowing him to sniff out a handful of openings.

But after playing just 20 minutes of his last four months at Dundee due to a knee injury, MacDonald’s finishing wasn’t quite at his usual razor sharp standards.

He passed up four reasonable first-half chances before coolly converting the Ton’s equaliser shortly after the break.

That clinical cutting edge will come with games, though, and the 34-year-old’s overall performance offered more than enough to suggest that goals will flow for him at this level.

Nevertheless, there was still a small element of surprise to see MacDonald’s name in the starting line-up when the teamsheets arrived in the Somerset Park press box.

He was a substitute at Stenhousemuir the previous week, with starting strikers Stefan McCluskey and Ross Caldwell both scoring in a 3-2 win.

But there can be little doubt that, when fit, MacDonald will be as close to a certain starter as there currently is at the club.

And so the thinking must be that the only way to get him up to speed is by playing him in matches.

On Saturday, manager Jim Duffy went with a MacDonald and McCluskey pairing, with Caldwell dropping to the bench.

On 11 minutes, the former Rangers and St Johnstone striker served notice of his intent with an intelligent dart across the face of, and then in behind, Ayr’s back three.

Left winger Jamie McCluskey was on the same wavelength and slipped a perfectly weighted pass down the inside-left channel.

MacDonald fastened onto it and in one movement unleashed a stinging left-foot shot that well-placed former Ton keeper David Hutton did well to beat clear.

He then almost turned provider, threading the ball through the heart of the home defence for Stefan McCluskey. The pass had just too much on it, however.

With experienced centre-back pairing Peter Murphy and Martyn Campbell missing through injury, Jon Paul McGovern was installed at the centre of Ayr’s back three.

The 34-year-old played in an attacking role in the first meeting between the clubs on the opening Saturday of the season and then in midfield in the rematch in mid-October.

And his forward-thinking instincts were on display on 16 minutes when he tried to catch out Grant Adam with an audacious free-kick from just inside the Ton half.

Just for a second it looked as though the ball would float into the net, but the Ton keeper quickly backtracked to make a comfortable catch on his line.

A feature of the first half was the aerial dominance of the visitors’ centre-halves Thomas O’Ware and Ricki Lamie, who were playing together as a pairing for the first time this term.

Such was their supremacy, they often stepped up ahead of the rest of the backline to send the ball back into the Ayr half.

And it was from one such thumping Lamie header that MacDonald was presented with what was arguably his best chance of the game on 22 minutes.

Lurking right on the shoulder of the last defender, the Morton skipper reacted quickest to burst onto the ball as it dropped in the no man’s land between the defence and Hutton.

It just wouldn’t settle, forcing MacDonald to take it on the bounce. His left-footed lob had too much on it and looped over the top, to his obvious frustration.

The visitors were having much the better of the half, with energetic full-backs Lee Kilday and Mark Russell bombing forward at every opportunity.

The one thing that evaded them, though, was a quality final ball, as both hit the first man with their deliveries more than once after doing well to get into promising positions.

Yet when Kilday picked out MacDonald with a pull-back after picking Michael Donald’s pocket on the bye-line, the player-coach screwed wide of the left-hand post from 10 yards.

The failure to make their chances count was punished when Ayr netted against the run of play on 37 minutes.

Adam, who is far from shy about coming for crosses, attempted to reach over the top of Kilday and Morgyn Neill to punch Brian Gilmour’s outswinging corner.

The keeper couldn’t reach over the bodies and stumbled while Craig Murray headed back into the danger area for Neill to flick the ball over Adam’s head and into the net as he tried to recover.

On the balance of play, Ton didn’t deserve to go in at the break trailing and they fashioned one final half-chance to level things up before the interval. With two minutes of the half remaining, Joe McKee’s free-kick from a position deep on the left found Lamie at the far post.

The 6ft 2in defender won his aerial duel and the ball dropped invitingly for MacDonald, who hooked an acrobatic volley over the top.

MacDonald lingered on the turf for a second, lying on his back and rubbing his head in disbelief at another opportunity missed.

But after taking his second of solace he quickly nipped up, ready to go again. That mentality, of the time-served striker who doesn’t let misses affect him, was all important in the second half.

With just 70 seconds played after the restart, he had levelled the scores with an expertly taken opportunist’s goal.

Ayr goalscorer Neill, an 18-year-old on loan from Motherwell, was the hero turned villain as he completely misjudged O’Ware’s long ball, as did McGovern, allowing it to spin in behind.

MacDonald pounced on the miscalculation, touching inside the advancing Hutton before rifling into the net.

Elsewhere, midfielder Ross Forbes was handed his debut after signing from Dunfermline Athletic during the week.

The former Motherwell man has a reputation as a set-piece specialist, and his inswinging corners were a thorn in the Honest Men’s collective side. He picked out O’Ware on 49 minutes but the defender didn’t quite manage to control his header and skewed across goal and beyond the left-hand upright. The visitors were proving a real threat on the counter-attack in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

Such was Ayr’s struggle to halt Ton’s rapid transitions by fair means they were reduced to fouling, with Robbie Crawford collecting a booking for scything down Stefan McCluskey.

But a lot of that impetus seemed to be lost when Jamie McCluskey was forced off with a hamstring strain on 58 minutes.

Momentum seemed to shift to Ian McCall’s men, whose main threat was lively supporting striker Alan Forrest. Forrest, the younger brother of Celtic’s James, who also impressed out on the wing against Morton on the opening day of the season, burst between O’Ware and Lamie on 55 minutes.

But after showing both centre-backs a clean pair of heels, the talented 18-year-old botched the finish, skewing harmlessly wide.

Then, on the hour, only a desperate last-ditch challenged from Lamie, which saw him collide with Adam and leave both needing treatment, prevented Forrest from profiting on hesitancy in the Morton midfield. Forbes was also in the wars and had to go off to receive three stitches to a cut just below his eyebrow. Conor Pepper seemed a likely candidate to join the fray at this stage. However, Duffy allowed time for Forbes to be bandaged up before sending him back on to see out the remainder of the match.

Shortly after returning to the field, he found O’Ware with another teasing flag-kick. The defender looked odds on to score this time but steered his header over the top from six yards.

The action became a bit frantic in the closing stages and both sides had chances to claim all three points in the final 10 minutes.

Ton were thwarted by a late double save from Hutton, who first parried sub Caldwell’s drive from distance and then scrambled to his feet to paw clear MacDonald’s follow up, a wonderfully improvised scooped slide-tackle.

However, McCall’s men looked the side most likely to score as they caused concern in Adam’s box in stoppage time.

They could, in fact, have snatched it right at the death when the ball fell to the feet of sub Craig McCracken eight yards out, but Adam managed to get down to smother his low snapshot.

Taking the full 90 minutes into consideration, Morton will be disappointed not to have managed their first win over Ayr this season.

The outcome could be seen as a missed opportunity with Stranraer losing 2-0 at home to Brechin City or a point clawed back on the League One leaders. It all depends on your viewpoint.

For a striker of MacDonald’s calibre, it is more than likely he would have been far from satisfied with one goal and a point. But he won’t dwell on it either.