Stirling Albion came into this game on the back of 4 defeats and where always going to be underdogs to come out the game with anything. Morton, as always, brought a large travelling support to back them and overall it was a pretty decent sized crowd for a mid-week game. Stirling went into the game without the injured trio of Roycroft, Rowe and McLean. Barry Neville had been dropped from the team at Forfar with Paul Hay put in his place at right back. The suspended Mark McNally made way for Chris Scotland and Paul Nugent returned to the team after his suspension in the place of the injured George Rowe. Stewart Devine also returned to his starting berth at the left back slot, whilst Douglas Wilson was moved back to his more familiar right wing spot. Mark Canning was again listed as a trialist and Kevin MacDonald was also moved back to his more familiar spot in the centre of midfield. Up front saw Robert Dunn make his second debut for the Binos after signing from Dumbarton and Paul Di Giacomo also made his home debut. On the bench was William Ferguson who had signed from Partick Thistle mid-week, but never featured in tonight's game.

Morton started the game brightly and after only a couple minutes one of there players swung a deep ball into the box from the right wing and Templeman forced a good save out of Hogarth from his header. From the resulting corner Morton took the lead through the ever unlikely Stewart Greacen's over-head kick from about 6 yards out.

After the Morton goal Stirling totally dominated the game and there goalkeeper was easily man of the match. Stirling almost equalized when Paul Di Giacomo picked up the ball deep in his own half on the left hand wing. He then proceeded to out sprint the defender and skip past another only for the goalkeeper to deny him goal of the season.

After 10 minutes Stirling again pushed for the equalizer when Stewart Devine picked up the ball on the edge of the box drove the ball to the keepers left hand side only for the keeper to pull off another great save and push it out for a corner. Douglas Wilson took the corner and his in-swinger was met by the head of Di Giacomo, but it sailed over.

Stirling won a free kick on the left had side of the box after David O'Brien was brought down. Pay Hay took the free-kick and O'Brien almost scored with his head, but again the keeper frustrated the home support.

After 25 minutes Douglas Wilson managed to win the ball on the right hand side next to the dug outs and passed it on to Robert Dunn. Dunn ran in from the right and beat his man. He then jinked in the box to beat another defender and again the Morton goalkeeper pulled off another vital save.

Morton had a rare opportunity to score when in the 35th minute Paul Nugent conceded a free-kick just outside the box, but Weatherson put the free-kick over the bar.

The game got it's first booking when Morton's Derek Collins was booked for a foul on Douglas Wilson.

Half Time- Stirling 0 v Morton 1

The first shot of the second half came when Stewart Devine hit the ball past the left hand post from a 20 yard's.

Morton where to make the first substitution of the game when off came Peter Weatherson for Dean Keenan. This was followed shortly by the games second booking when the Morton sub was booked for bringing down Douglas Wilson.

The substitution seemed to spur Morton on as they almost scored from a free-kick. They won the free-kick wide on the left and when in-swung it missed all the intended Morton players and almost sneaked in at Hogarths far post. Stirling responded by making the Morton keeper pull of the save of the match. Paul Di Giacomo beat his man on the right and crossed over and the impressive Dunn stretched his right foot out only for the keeper to deny him a debut goal.

Stirling picked up there first booking of the match when Chris Scotland was booked for bringing a Morton player down. This was followed when the very quiet Chris Templeman came off for Jason Walker.

Again this seemed to spur on Morton who won a free kick on the right hand side. The in swinging ball was headed over by the Morton forward. Shortly after this Myles Hogarth raced off his line and put a challenge on Walker. There was clearly no contact made, but he still fell to the ground like a ton of bricks. Rowbotham booked him for diving.

Stirling made a double substuation with only 5 minutes to go. Off came Mark Canning and Robert Dunn and on came Martin Glancy and Craig Ferguson and it was Glancy who helped set up Stirling's equalizer. Myles Hogarth punted the ball up field whilst under pressure from a Morton forward and this let in Martin Glancy. Glancy managed to head the ball down and looked to have taken a touch to much. However, he crossed the ball into the box to let Paul Di Giacomo score on his home debut from about 10 yards.It was more than Stirling had deserved after putting the Morton defence under a lot of pressure.

Craig Ferguson almost sold the game in the dying minutes when his mistake on the half way line let in a Morton forward, however, his cross never had any takers.

Overall Stirling more than deserved a point out of the game and Morton can be lucky that there keeper kept them in the game on more than one occasion. Things are now looking a bit better for the long trip to Stranraer on Saturday and another point from there will go down well with the Bino's faithful. I will also be taking my usual back seat as Ian will be back in the reporting hotseat.