Morton chase a fourth victory in a row against Airdrie

The Greenock men were on cloud nine last Saturday night after they capped a busy spell with a 1-0 victory over Queen's Park at Cappielow, a result which hoisted them into fifth place in the Championship.

It was a triumph over adversity, on a day when Dougie Imrie was rightly proud of the tremendous character displayed by his players.

They had gone into the game full of optimism after beating Arbroath and Inverness in quick succession to finally lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

With Queen's struggling and having just parted company with their manager there was a real sense of expectation around the stadium, one which the players vindicated with a fast start.

They got themselves ahead with a beautifully worked goal converted by Robbie Muirhead - more of that later - and could have been further ahead after Lewis Strapp was unlucky to see his rising left foot shot clip the crossbar after bursting through on goal.

The stage seemed set for the home side to go on and take command of the game, but referee Grant Irvine had other ideas as he produced two hugely controversial decisions which threatened to turn the match on its head.

The whistler had already attracted the ire of the crowd for some inconsistent and baffling calls, but he left everyone in the stadium stunned when he sprinted up to Ton striker George Oakley and brandished a red card at him for a foul near the halfway line that looked like a yellow card offence.

All of a sudden Ton were facing a second half down to ten men amid fury from players and fans alike, but the atmosphere darkened further minutes later when Irvine followed that up by awarding an extremely dubious penalty to the visitors.

The astonished and angry reaction of the Morton players spoke volumes, with Irvine issuing cautions as his poor handling of the game threatened to spiral out of control.

Justice was done when goalkeeper Ryan Mullen saved from Ruari Paton's spot kick, but the way Irvine was confronted on his way off the pitch at the break indicated the sense of injustice harboured by the home side.

They had already lost influential midfielder Iain Wilson when he was stretchered off injured, but everything that went against them in that stormy, rain-lashed first half just seemed to galvanise them.

The ten men went on to produce a powerhouse second half performance where they repelled anything that The Spiders could throw at them, and even managed to come close to adding to their lead on a couple of occasions.

They worked their socks off to protect what they had, putting their bodies on the line, and richly deserved the celebrations they enjoyed with the Cowshed at the end of the game.

After such an action-packed week, with gruelling conditions, injury and that red card all playing a part, the manager will have been careful to manage their workload this week ahead of tomorrow's game at The Excelsior Stadium.

Rest and recuperation will have proved just as important at training as preparation, and hopefully the players will have recovered and be fresh for the fight.

After collecting more points in eight days than they'd previously won in over four months, they must be flying and feeling confident of making it four on the spin against opponents who sit level on points with them.

That hints at a closely-fought encounter, a forecast which would be backed up by the two previous meetings of the teams this season.

Airdrie were fortunate to leave Cappielow with a victory under their belt in the league meeting of September and when they returned in November on Challenge Cup duty they won the tie on penalty kicks, with Ton only having themselves to blame this time for a catalogue of missed chances.

The sides have looked evenly matched thus far and Morton will believe they can be on the right end of things this time.

They'll be facing a Diamonds side which has earned plenty of plaudits for playing good football, the kind of compliments which have been in short supply for Morton.

The manager made a wry reference to it in his post-match comments last weekend, and he had every right after the beautifully-worked team goal which settled the match.

Opposition bosses tend to damn Ton with faint praise or be outright disparaging about their style, but they have shown in recent weeks that they can get the ball on the deck and pass it.

They are also able to get forward quickly and play to their attacking strengths and it is that which really seems to rankle with some sides, particularly when they fail to cope with it.

A fiery character as a player, since he took the reins at Ton Imrie has been nothing but respectful of his opposite numbers and their players, but more often than not it hasn't been met in kind.

Instead he and his players have regularly had to listen to sour grapes from other quarters.

Yet if it helps fuel them with a bit of extra motivation then it is no bad thing.

Tomorrow's game is one of two successive away matches over the festive period and it is a winnable one for Morton - a fourth consecutive victory would be the ideal early Christmas present for them and their supporters.