GREENOCK MORTON earned the right to play their football in the Scottish Championship next season after they defeated Airdrieonians by three goals to nil.
Last Friday night at Cappielow, Morton carried a slender one-goal lead into the second leg of the play-off final, needing to at least draw the game to ensure Championship football next season.
Robbie Muirhead – the hero of the first leg last Tuesday – opened the scoring early on when he latched onto a fluffed Airdrie clearance.
Muirhead controlled Jack McKay’s clearance, chipping the ball into the air setting it up for a volley from outside the box which dipped over the Airdrie keeper Max Currie.
Just before the end of the first half Dunoon’s Lewis Strapp came within inches of doubling Morton’s lead, but his shot rattled the underside of the crossbar.
Gary Oliver was closest at hand for the rebound and he nodded the ball home over a flailing Currie.
Robbie Muirhead finished off the game when he followed up a parried Stephen McGinn shot, lashing the ball home to make the scoreline 4-0 on aggregate.
Manager Gus MacPherson, brought in to save Morton’s season after the previous manager David Hopkin left, called the play-off result a miracle.
Speaking to TonTV after the game, he said: “I could sum it up in one word, it’s a miracle. “Everybody connected to the club has
been challenged this year. Lots of decisions have been made this year that we could bring out into the open, but to be fair the players have been immense.
“They are a credit to themselves, how they’ve applied themselves. Not just in games, in training.
“They’ve been terrific to work with.”
Some 600 fans were permitted to attend the game at Cappielow, as the club appears set to go fully into fan ownership.
