IT'S the dawn of a new era at Cappielow tomorrow as Morton play their first match under new ownership.

Arbroath will be the first visitors as the new regime officially takes charge, following the midweek completion of the takeover by fans' investment group Morton Club Together.

It was finally signed off on Tuesday as the Rae family and their Golden Casket company passed control of the club to the community, marking the end of their 20 years in charge on Sinclair Street.

There have been plenty of well documented peaks and troughs over those two eventful decades and the time was right for all concerned for the club to get a fresh start.

It's not too difficult to imagine that the late Douglas Rae OBE, the man who rescued the club from the brink of liquidation, would have fully approved of the decision to pass it to the supporters.

Back in 2001, Mr Rae was acutely aware that it was the fans and wider community who had kept the club going against all the odds for many months as it stumbled through administration and some very dark days indeed.

Without those fans there would have been no club left to save and, in turn, without the late chairman's intervention, all those efforts would have been in vain.

So it seems entirely fitting that the baton should now be passed from the Rae family to MCT, with a neat symmetry bookending their time in charge.

The takeover process proved to be a protracted affair, to the frustration of some, with the deal originally having been due to complete on June 1.

In the event, complex land registry and other issues had to be worked through and the key point is that everything has been done properly.

It is also important to remember how much has been achieved in the two and a bit years since local man Graham McLennan founded MCT and unveiled his vision for the future in the Telegraph.

Initially this organisation was a vehicle for supporters to be able to put working capital into the club as a way to bolster the first team playing squad, but things soon took off.

With the weight of numbers joining the contribution scheme it soon became clear that there was a viable pathway for Morton to move towards a historic transition, putting its fate in the hands of the supporters.

Huge credit goes to everyone involved with MCT who put in the hard graft and have accomplished a great deal in a comparatively short space of time, plus the 850 people who have crucially put their hands in their pockets to go the extra mile for the club they love.

Those involved in this collective undertaking will not waste much time patting themselves on the back, however.

They will be aware that this is a time for everyone to look forward, not back, and to capitalise on the ground that has been made - the real work to mould a sustainable and successful football club starts now.

It will be far from easy but the future of Greenock Morton FC is for the fans to make - and surely that is the best way forward for this proud old Scottish footballing institution.

There will be a lot of goodwill around the takeover and MCT, the club board and their staff now have to make the most of that, use the foundations they have in place and try and establish a feelgood factor.

One of the key tasks will be growing the member base and also attracting more fans to matches, particularly those lapsed supporters who had grown disillusioned in recent years after the excitement which characterised the early part of Golden Casket's tenure dissipated.

Granted they will not be able to attract everyone back, but by resourcing the club in the right places and improving and developing the way it is run - as well as learning lessons from other sides who have already gone down this road - there is plenty of cause for optimism.

While these are all hugely important aspects of the running of the club, getting them right will take time and the more immediate concern of supporters is of course what happens on the park.

It's fair to say Morton have struggled on that front lately, picking up only one point from the last 15 and going four matches in the Championship without scoring a goal.

Of more concern is the fact they have rarely even looked like finding the back of the net, and this lack of creativity is something they are going to have to address quickly if they want to turn things around.

They took a baby step forward last week with the draw against an Ayr United side that had been in resurgent form, but in all honesty the match was a lamentable spectacle that will not live long in the memory.

The plus points were getting a clean sheet and ending a run of four successive defeats - now manager Gus MacPherson will want to build on that.

Tomorrow his side will be facing an Arbroath outfit which has made a superb start to the season, with boss Dick Campbell forced to publicly downplay hopes of a promotion play-off charge while perhaps saying the opposite behind closed doors.

They will come to Cappielow fresh from a good point against title favourites Kilmarnock and having won in Greenock already this year they will see no reason why they cannot follow up.

For Morton, the onus is on them to try and make much more of the running than they have in recent weeks - they must take the game to the visitors.

If they could get their nose in front their confidence would surely get a lift and it would be interesting to see how Arbroath react to being put on the back foot.