Morton’s summer signing Martin Hardie made his first appearance of the season when came on for the last 17 minutes of his side’s 3-1 success over one of his former clubs, Partick Thistle, and he quickly showed why Manager Allan Moore has taken him to Greenock.
Despite being 2-1 down and having only 10 men after Hugh Murray was sent off the previously unbeaten Glasgow side were pushing for an equaliser until Hardie supplied the deftest of passes that allowed David O’Brien to side-foot home 4 minutes from time to seal Morton’s win.
Hardie said, “People might have thought it was going to be route one when I came on so it was good to use a bit of vision and slip the ball in for David to score. I have only been training for a week after 8 weeks out with an injury and it has been a frustrating time. I have not played competitively since being in the SPL with Dunfermline.”
“Thistle had plenty of possession and passed the ball well but we took our chances and that is what you have to do in the First Division. We played a team here earlier in the season and they passed us to death but they never won.”
The battling 36-year-old was just one of a number of seasoned professionals that Moore brought in during the summer and it was good day for them as Kevin Rutkiewicz and Mark McLaughlin headed in from Michael Tidser corners either side of a Steven Craig equaliser in the first half.
Hardie said, “The manager brought us in to add experience and guile to the team as we have a lot of young players in our squad. We are here to show them the ropes as we have been through it all before.”
“We are third and have won a few games in a row so we are going okay but most of the games have been at home so there are challenges to come and Dunfermline and then Livingston away in our next two games are big tests.”
Hardie added, “I don’t think we need to start talking about title challenges as we still only in first quarter. It could be an exciting First Division this season with 3 or 4 teams going for the Title and it will be a great advert for the League.”
“Ross County running away with it last season made it non-competitive but there should also be a Play-Off spot for this League. It is long overdue and I have been saying that for years.”
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