JONATAN Johansson was a relieved man as he saw his depleted Morton side end their winless streak on Saturday.

The Ton were down to the bare bones at the weekend, with a number of suspensions and injuries limiting Johansson’s options for the clash against Partick Thistle.

But goals from Scott Tiffoney and Charlie Telfer made sure the Greenock side picked up their first league win in seven games, helping to move them up to fifth in the 
table.

They had to work hard for it, after Craig Slater’s equaliser buoyed the hosts on at Firhill heading into the final minutes of the match, as they put heavy pressure on for large parts of the second half and searched for a winner.

The Finn was proud of his team’s resilience to weather the storm and earn the victory against the Jags.

He told the Tele: “I felt we really haven’t had the rub of the green lately. We’ve been playing well in parts and things have been going against us.

“We have been worried about that for most of December as we’ve had key players out. In key areas we’re very short, especially defensively, and that’s dictated a little bit with how we’ve had to play with the formation and that’s never good.

“But for the players to put in a performance like they did on Saturday was great, we have a few tired legs as well.
“Sometimes it’s good to freshen it up with some changes as well and it was nice to get young Reece out again, as he’s been out for almost two months.”

It ended an unwanted run of seven games without a win, which stretched back to the start of November, when Morton last beat Partick Thistle 5-1 at Cappielow.

There have been several strong performances along the way, but the Ton boss was pleased to finally get some rewards for their good play.

He added: “We were searching for a win, I have to be honest and I think we just had to keep believing in what we’re doing, work hard and we knew Partick were going to be tough, with the way they set up nowadays.

“But also they were going to give us a lot of chances on the counter-attack and we got that in the second half with a great counter-attack goal.

“We worked hard, the two centre-halves and the back four defended the box really well from crosses.

“We became a little bit too passive at times, we sat deeper but we didn’t put much pressure on and we kept getting crosses into the box, and they kept getting in at the sides.

“We looked dangerous at times but I think if you work that hard you create your own luck a little bit and I just wished we had a little bit more quality on the counter at times as they were open as well.

“It was flowing. The second half was probably good viewing for the fans but not for me, but it was fantastic to score the second goal.”