11th March 2001
Morton ISC vs Sparta Jag
Parklea, Port Glasgow
A few absences, injuries and late call-offs gave us a few headaches at first
but other players returning from injury meant we were able to travel to Port
Glasgow with a full squad. Morton's keeper made an early appearance and had
us line up for a publicity shot for something called
The Dub Club. The game
was supposed to be played on grass, but despite looking fine during our
warm-up, the grass pitches at Parklea had been designated unplayable and we
had to play on red blaes instead. Jake Hansen in goals was wearing a pair of
shorts and was not at all keen on the idea of diving on gravel.
Just three minutes into the first half, a long-range effort from a Morton
player sailed past Hansen and into the net. Things went from bad to worse
shortly afterwards when the referee asked Graeme McGlashan to leave the pitch
on account of having no shinguards. At the next break in play, the Morton and
Thistle managers both made an appeal to the referee, who said he did not want
to be responsible for anyone being injured and insisted on shinguards being
worn. Paddy Kelly had none either but luckily this escaped his attention.
After ten minutes we drew level when Charlie Kirkwood turned in the box to
fire a low shot past the keeper, and a minute later the same player put us
ahead. Craig McIntosh picked up a loose pass and played the ball to Paddy
Kelly, who backheeled it for Kirkwood to steer into the bottom corner. We
could have gone further ahead ten minutes later but Kelly had a shot cleared
off the line. In the meantime, the referee had decided that shinguards were
not necessary after all so McGlashan was able to return to pitch for the
second half, which came a bit sooner than expected as the referee, who had
arrived ten minutes late, blew for half-time after 40 minutes.
Half time: Morton ISC 1 Sparta Jag 2
We got off to a bad start again when a clearance appeared to strike Craig
McIntosh on the arm and the referee awarded a penalty, but it was well saved
and held by Jake Hansen. He later claimed this was the turning point in the
match, although Morton continued to press for the equaliser and had a few
speculative shots go wide.
After weathering the storm, we began to move forward again with Robert Stirling
in particular battling well in midfield. Our third goal came when Paddy Kelly
dribbled through the Morton defence and placed an unstoppable shot in the top
corner. Five minutes later, Craig McIntosh made the game safe when he too ran
through the opposing defence and blasted the ball past the keeper, who got a
hand to it but couldn't keep it out.
We might have gone further ahead in the last twenty minutes, but we were
caught narrowly offside several times. A wider margin would not really have
been a fair reflection of the game, which had been evenly balanced for the most
part, although we had proved better at taking our chances, marking a great
improvement from just a few months ago. Once again the referee brought the
half to an end five minutes early, signalling our second away win in a row.
Full time: Morton ISC 1 Sparta Jag 4
Squad: Hansen; Deans, Anderson, Walker S, McIntosh; McGlashan, Stirling,
Kirkwood, Sangster, Devlin; Nelson, Kelly, Condron P.
Gallery
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