Greenock Morton 1
Dunfermline Athletic 1

The Pars rescue a barely deserved point with a late equaliser from Ross Campbell.

Nick Phinn in action.

Is there a more depressing place on the Pars First Division travels than Greenock? Yet again, it rained and the surroundings seemed to take some of the recent effervescence out of the Pars performance. But the fact is this was the type of game the Pars have to get something out of if they are to mount a serious challenge for the title.

There was a surprise recall for Stephen Glass after recovering from injury with Steven Bell dropping to the bench. No doubt Manager Jim McIntyre was trying to reinstate some balance to his midfield foursome. The Pars started with Gallacher in goal, a back four of Nipper, Dinger, Shields and Ozzy. The midfield saw Harper on the right, Glass and Phinn in the middle and Burke on the left. The striking duo of Bayne and Kirk led the attack.

The Pars started the match quite brightly winning a corner in the first minute. As in recent matches Kevin Harper was involved early on and at that stage looked up for the game. The Pars were finding a lot of room on the left with Austin McCann doing well and linking with Kirk and Burke.

What was very noticeable even in the first 15 minutes or so, was the size of the Morton centre backs who were not going to make things easy for Bayne and Kirk. The Pars were having success getting crosses over but perhaps the tight Greenock pitch resulted in too many of the crosses being overhit.

There was an early set back for the Pars when Scott Wilson had to be subbed after clashing with Masterton over on the left touchline. Calum Woods came on with Nipper moving to centre back alongside Shields. That possibly made things a bit harder for the Pars as the Morton centre forward, Brian Wake, was proving a bit of a handful but Wilson had him in his back pocket until he went off.

The Pars were still not being direct enough and the Morton keeper, Cuthbert, barely had a direct shot to save.

Morton were being a bit more direct and in 21 minutes Burke had to make a good clearance with an offside flag preventing another dangerous situation a few minutes later as the Pars defence was exposed. The Morton fans were out of the seats acclaiming a goal but the shot from Wake hit the side net. Close but not close enough.

The Pars were reasonably in control of the game as the game headed for half time but without a decisive cutting edge. Half time 0-0.

The second half was a scrappy affair but teh game exploded into action in 58 minutes when the home side appeared to have scored. It was actually very difficult to see what happened courtesy of the pillar obscured view from the stand. A Morton corner seemed to be cleared from his line by Gallacher with the home fans and players indicating the ball had gone over the line. Credit to the Morton players for not making too much of a fuss which perhaps suggest it wasn`t that clear cut. That near goal fired up the home side and Gallacher had to tip over a good shot from Masterton. The home fans were able to celebrate a goal in 60 minutes as BRIAN WAKE headed home a cross from the left with virtually a free header. The Pars defence had switched off.



The Pars passing game had gone and they were resorting to the long ball too much but that was in no doubt due to complete lack of control and some very poor passing. Stephen Glass was particularly guilty and he looked off the pace. Andy Kirk could not get the ball to stick and Kevin Harper had done his disappearing act. In fact, Harper did disappear as he was replaced by Simon Wiles and that made an immediate difference with Wiles making a direct run on the right wing.

A misplaced pass by Woods almost lets Morton away for another good chance but Nipper steps in to stop the danger. That typified what was going wrong for the Pars with no real incisive passes being made. Nicky Phinn was taken off with Ross Campbell coming on with the travelling support making clear their displeasure at Phinn being taken off. The general buzz around the Pars support was that Glass should have been taken off as he was struggling.