BY ALAN TEMPLE – Capital City Press
It is a mark of the lofty standards being set at Greenock Morton this season that there was rancour in the air following their splendid demolition of Livingston.
Goals from Stefan McCluskey, Denny Johnstone, Bobby Barr and Jon Scullion ensured the visitors would be returning to Greenock on Saturday night with all three points, having lavishly taken advantage of Ben Gordon’s first-half dismissal.
However, with a handsome lead against 10 men, perhaps complacency kicked in during the final five minutes and Jordan White and Jordyn Sheerin restored some respectability to the score-line.
Given Morton’s stated aim this term is to survive in the Championship, one might expect that late blip to be forgotten amid the euphoria of moving into the playoff places with their second consecutive league win.
Instead, Morton boss Jim Duffy revealed that an impromptu, and candid, post-mortem took place in the dressing-room at full-time. And defender Ricki Lamie believes that can only be a good thing.
“There was a bit of frustration because we wanted that clean sheet,” said the 22-year-old.
“As far as I’m concerned, we are setting ourselves high standards.
“In the first four league games, we only conceded two goals. We have doubled that against 10 men on Saturday, so we were disappointed with that. That is a good mentality to have.
“At the start of the season, the aim was to stay up. But this is a great club with fantastic traditions and it belongs higher up the division and we’d like to build on this start.”
