MORTON made it five wins from their last six games to ease their own relegation fears and leave Airdrie United rooted to the foot of the First Division table.
However, the Greenock men could not be sure of the points against a dogged Diamonds outfit until injury time when Allan Jenkins added to Brian Wake's opener. Airdrie enjoyed the early possession but were unable to seriously test home keeper Kevin Cut
hbert.
Instead Morton gradually came into it and
took the lead in 34 minutes. Airdrie goalkeeper Stephen Robertson raced from his box to deal with a harmless through ball but succeeded only in hitting his clearance against Wake, who ran the ball home in spite of Bobby Donnelly's despairing lunge on the line.
Wake almost doubled Morton's lead with a superb angled shot from Ryan McGuffie's cross but Robertson produced an excellent goal-line save.
The Diamonds keeper denied Morton again on the restart with a point-blank parry from McAlister with Erik Paartalu contriving to send the rebound wide.
There was increasing anxiety among home fans as their side failed to finish off a resilient Airdrie but the points were finally sealed in injury time when Jenkins ran onto Kevin Finlayson's pass and beat Robertson.
Morton: Cuthbert, MacGregor, Shimmin, Greacen, Smith, McGuffie (Finlayson 82), Jenkins, Paartalu, McAlister (Masterton 89), Weatherson, Wake. Subs not used: McManus, Russell, McWilliams.
Airdrie: Robertson, Smyth, Bobby Donnelly, Nixon, Hazley, Cardle, McDonald, McKenna, McLaughlin, Di Giacomo, Lynch (Noble 80). Subs not used: Darren Smith, Brown, McDougall, Hollis.
Ref: C Allan.
Att: 1,642.
The full article contains 272 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
