Queen Of The South 1 - O'Connor (49)Morton 4 - Weatherson (19, 28), Jenkins (37), Greacen (74)
Att: 2944
Morton maintained their superb record at Palmerston with a stunning 4-1 win.
Morton were still without Dominic Shimmin so Allan McManus kept his place in the side. Erik Paartalu came in for Kevin Finlayson - a change which meant Allan Jenkins moved out to right midfield - otherwise Morton were unchanged from the team that lost 1-0 at Livingston last week.
A visit to Palmerston always seems to bring out the best in Peter Weatherson so it seemed inevitable that if we were to score Weatherson would be the man to do it and so it proved. He opened the scoring in the 19th minute when he intercepted Craig Sives headed backpass and slotted past Cammy Bell in the Queen of the South goal.
Spoonsy - or Nelly as he's known in Dumfries - added a second nine minutes later. Jim McAlister went on a mazy run down the left wing; he skipped past Tom Parratt then turned Neil MacFarlane (who has finally shaved off his dreadful Mr. Burns hairdo) inside out before cutting back on himself and whipping over an excellent right footed cross to the back post. Allan Jenkins had peeled off at the back post from where he managed to head back across goal and Weatherson nodded down and into the net after out jumping Andy Aitken.
Everytime we go to Palmerston Weatherson seems inspired. The same can be said of Sean O'Connor who seems to score evertime he plays against Morton. Unfortunately Sean doesn't need to play at Cappielow to score against us - he'll happily do it anywhere. His 49th minute goal was his fifth goal in eight appearances against Morton since his loan spell in 2001/02. Sean smashed the ball through Stewart Greacen's legs and past Kevin Cuthbert to finish off a rapid counter attack that started when Chris Smith had a shot charged down 30 yards from goal. Stephen Dobbie picked up the loose ball, charged forward and passed to Paul Burns who fed O'Connor for the goal.
However, before O'Connor attempted to emulate Weatherson Allan Jenkins had scored to make it 3-0 Morton. A Jim McAlister corner was headed out by MacFarlane but only as far as Jenkins who smashed a stunning volley past Bell from around 25 yards. Jenks seemed delighted with his goal and ran the length of the park to celebrate with the Ton faithful. It's great to see a player who enjoys scoring so much although, in saying that, I'm sure the fact he's Stranraer born and bred and captained his home town team made the goal against their big rivals all the sweeter.
Morton had blitzed Queens with three first half goals and such was the confidence going it at half-time 3-0 up everyone around me started whipping out their fixed odds coupons to reveal their various bets on Morton - we were an excellent 4/1 with Ladbrokes - to check how much their winnings would be and to start planning what they'd spend it on. O'Connor's goal early in the second half ensured some of those coupons were quickly stuffed back in pockets. The half-time confidence was replaced with fear as Queens pounded the Morton goal searching for a second goal. Cuthbert was called into action on numerous occasions and made several excellent saves - the best of which was probably when he tipped David Weatherston's rising drive over the bar. As well as Cutbert being in inspired form luck was on our side. If Queen of the South's players weren't missing sitters or hitting the bar they were smashing shots off Cuthbert's face from point-blank range. In the Sunday Mail match report Peter Weatherson mentioned this save when he exaplined why they are now calling Cuthbert 'The Magnet': "We're calling Kevin 'The Magnet' after all these saves because the ball just flew to him. He even saved one with his face from O'Connor!"
We were under siege and so it was probably a huge relief when we won a free-kick up the other end with quarter of an hour to go. Stevie Masterton - on as a substitute - whipped over a sublime free-kick from out on the right and Stewart Greacen arrived right on cue to meet it perfectly and bullet a header into the bottom corner for his first goal since he scored against Brechin on the 3rd of April 2007. The big defender must've used every one of his neck muscles to generate the power and accuracy he did. An excellent goal. There can't have been many goals that have come so against the run of play and this crushed our opponents who will believe they deserved far more for their second half efforts.
This victory made it three wins in the last four matches and saw us move off the bottom of the table. Maybe, just maybe, we've turned a corner.
Morton (4-4-2):
1. Cuthbert - 9
2. MacGregor - 6
3. Smith - 7
4. McManus - 8
5. Paartalu - 7
6. Greacen (c) - 8
7. McGuffie - 7
8. Jenkins - 9
9. Weatherson - 9 (15. Masterton - 68 mins)
10. Grady - 7 (12. Wake - 74 mins)
11. McAlister - 7
Subs Not Used:
14. Russell
16. Finlayson
20. McWilliams
Booked: McManus, McAlister, Wake
Cuthbert
MacGregor Greacen McManus Smith
Jenkins Paartalu McGuffie McAlister
Weatherson Grady
QotS: Bell, Parratt (Arbuckle 79), McQuilken, Sives, Aitken, MacFarlane (Simmons 85), Burns, Tosh, Weatherston (Kean 79), O'Connor, Dobbie. Subs Not Used: Halliwell, Reid.
Subs Not Used: Halliwell, Reid.
Booked: Aitken, McQuilken, Tosh.
My man of the match: Allan Jenkins
Sponsor's man of the match:
Matchday Programme (Click to enlarge)
Official Teamsheet(Click to enlarge)
Greenock Telegraph match report
Greenock Telegraph - match reaction
BBC match report
Sunday Mail match report
qosfc.com - match report
Tontastic pictures
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