Morton |
3 - 1 |
Ayr United |
League (Championship) |
Goalscorers | |
Crawford (62'minutes), Muirhead (75'minutes pen), Boyd (87'minutes) |
Oliver Pendlebury (51) |
Team Managers | |
Dougie Imrie |
Lee Bullen |
Starting Eleven | |
30 MacDonald 17 McGrattan 4 O'Connor 15 Broadfoot 6 Waters 14 Crawford 21 Gillespie 10 Quitongo 9 Muirhead 7 Boyd 22 Oakley |
Charlie Albinson .1 Frankie Musonda .4 Sean McGinty .5 Patrick Reading .3 Andy Murdoch .6 Ben Dempsey .8 Jamie Murphy .15 Mark McKenzie .22 Nick McAllister .17 Franny Amartey .17 Fraser Bryden .30 |
Bench | |
19 Bearne 20 Power 25 King |
Robbie Mutch .31 Elicha Ahui .38 Finn Ecrepont .21 Oliver Pendlebury .16 Aiden McGeady .10 Ahkeem Rose .9 Paul Smith .18 |
Substitutions | |
None. |
Oliver Pendlebury for Andy Murdoch (40) Elicha Ahui for Nick McAllister (45) Ahkeem Rose for Franny Amartey (70) Aiden McGeady for Fraser Bryden (70) Ahkeem Rose for Mark McKenzie (81) |
Cautions | |
None. |
Nick McAllister Andy Murdoch Sean McGinty Frankie Musonda Elicha Ahui |
Red Cards | |
None. | None. |
Match Officials | |
Matthew MacDermid (Referee) |
Morton came from behind to open their Scottish Championship campaign with victory at home to Ayr United.
Ayr took the lead when Oliver Pendlebury side-footed Jamie Murphy's centre into the bottom corner.
But the tireless Robbie Crawford equalised with a lovely curling shot into the top corner before Robbie Muirhead added a second from the spot.
Jack Bearne set up Steven Boyd for a deft finish to put the icing on the cake for the Greenock men.
Dougie Imrie's first-team squad of 17 is stretched as it is without injuries and suspensions to some key players, which meant they could only name three players on the bench.
But despite going behind, and driven on by the engine of Crawford, Morton had the character to roar back.
George Oakley did well to draw a foul from Sean McGinty which gave the hosts the penalty in between the Crawford and Boyd strikes.
Morton manager Dougie Imrie: "It was important to get off to a good start against a team we only picked up two points from four games last season.
"I'm so happy to have Robbie Crawford here and his energy levels are fantastic - he drives the team forward."
Ayr manager Lee Bullen: "We got what we deserved. Morton were the better team. They were more physically up for the battle than we were.
"That's maybe the wake up call we needed. It's a shame it's come on the first day of the season."
Match report written by BBC
2023-24 | All Time | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age | Nat | |||||
Charlie Albinson (GK) | 26 | 3 | - | 54 | - | |
Frankie Musonda | 25 | 1 | - | 31 | 2 | |
Patrick Reading | 24 | 5 | - | 116 | 3 | |
Sean McGinty | 29 | 5 | - | 82 | 4 | |
Andy Murdoch | 28 | 4 | - | 154 | 6 | |
Nick McAllister | 22 | 3 | 1 | 49 | 2 | |
Mark McKenzie | 22 | 5 | 1 | 119 | 10 | |
Jamie Murphy | 33 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 1 | |
Ben Dempsey | 23 | 5 | 1 | 58 | 9 | |
Fraser Bryden | 19 | 5 | 3 | 37 | 6 | |
Franny Amartey | 24 | 5 | - | 5 | - | |
Oliver Pendlebury (sub) | - | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
Elicha Ahui (sub) | 19 | 1 | - | 1 | - | |
Aiden McGeady (sub) | 37 | 1 | - | 1 | - | |
Ahkeem Rose (sub) | 24 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
Ahkeem Rose (sub) | 24 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
Pld | W | D | L | Pts | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Dundee United | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
2. | Morton | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
3. | Dunfermline Athletic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
4. | Queen's Park | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
5. | Partick Thistle | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
6. | Raith Rovers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
7. | Airdrieonians | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
8. | ICT | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
9. | Ayr United | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
10. | Arbroath | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |