Greenock Morton 2
Dundee 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from Sunday Mail.

Morton finally killed off their Dundee hoodoo and maintained their Premier League challenge.

Before yesterday's game Greenock boss Benny Rooney had not led his side to victory over the Dens Park club.

But Morton remedied that situation in a Capplielow mudbath and, predictably, it was football folk hero Andy Ritchie who played a vital role in changing the record books.

First Ritchie set Morton on the winning trail by scoring the opening goal and then as he has done so often this season he created a second.

It sounds just like yet another one-man show from Andy-but this game which was played in appal ling conditions had much more to offer than that.

Dundee showed why Morton have found them such difficult opponents in the past and Dens fans will probably claim that they deserved a draw.

They can certainly point to a costly missed penalty and a shot which hit the post at a crucial time.

But Morton still did enough to desire more points. They were both composed side and, of course, in Andy Ritchie they had that important extra ingredient.

Ritchie played the starting role the star in the 18th minute incident which opened the scoring. A penalty was awarded after Glennie tripped Russell and Ritchie made a penalty kicking look easy as he placed the ball past Donaldson.

Ten minutes later Russell had a great chance to increase Morton's lead after McNeil put him in the clear, but the striker shot weakly into the keeper's arms.

And then Dundee-who kept trying throughout had a golden opportunity to equalise when they got a penalty two minutes from the interval after Holmes tripped Murphy. But Pirie hadn't been watching Andy Ritchie in action and his spot kick was stopped by Roy Baines, who also managed to divert McLaren's follow-up shot.

Only three minutes after the interval Dundee found that luck had still deserted them. First Murphy left Holmes stranded and then cut in on goal but his shot rebounded from a post.

And as Dundee were still trying to get over that lost chance, Morton struck again in 51 minutes when George Anderson rose unchallenged to head home a Ritchie corner.

From then on, despite non-stop effort from Dundee, Morton always looked in control and in the dying minutes they could easily have increased their lead.