O’Ware hoping to get the last laugh for Ton
THOMAS O’Ware reckons the coverage given to the skirmish between Morton boss Jim Duffy and his Hibs counterpart Neil Lennon turned both sides into a laughing stock.
But the Ton defender is hoping to have the last laugh as the Greenock side continue their push for promotion in the Championship.
Saturday’s feisty 1-1 draw with league leaders Hibs earned Morton another valuable point as they cemented their place in the play-off spots.
They remain 11 points behind the capital club with a game in hand. And with a local derby coming up this week against Renfrewshire rivals St Mirren, O’Ware insists the focus is purely on the future, not the controversies that have gone before.
The 24-year-old said: “Our gaffer played it [the incident] all down and to be honest I think both managers have been made into too much of a laughing stock. We’ve just concentrated on the game, even if there was naturally a wee bit extra about it all.
“No one’s trained any different, no one’s changed their attitude. We weren’t trying to get back at anyone, we just wanted three points.
“Having said all that, though, you could say we’re quite glad we’ve got it all over and done with. Now we’ve got Tuesday night to look forward to, the last derby of the season and a really big one.
“It’s massive with our game in hand and it could put us second.”
Morton continue to enjoy a terrific campaign and their draw with Hibernian was the third between the two teams in the league this season. The Ton have also taken points off p lay -of f rivals Falkirk and Dundee United while they pushed Rangers all the way in the Scottish Cup and gave Aberdeen a good run for their money in the semi-finals of the Betfred League Cup.
O’Ware added: “For a club like us to be where we are is a great achievement but there’s still a lot of work to be done, there’s still second and third place to play for.
“The gaffer gets the best out of us and even when we played the likes of Rangers away in the cup our shape was good. We work really hard on it in training, it’s one of our best traits.
“We might not score a lot of goals, but we defend from the front. Here, we’re disappointed with losing a sloppy goal, but apart from that we dealt with them well.
“It was the same over at Easter Road. But here we also had the character to get back in the game after going behind.”
It was Hibs who seized an ad- vantage just after the half hour when Jason Cummings darted clear and angled a fine finish high into the net.
But Morton rallied in the second half and equalised through Lawrence Shankland’s penalty after Jamie McDonagh had been toppled in the box by Darren McGregor.
Hibs boss Lennon was fuming at an earlier decision which denied his team a spot kick and had words with referee Bobby Madden on the pitch at the end.
While the former Celtic manager kissed and made up with sparring partner Duffy, he missed a couple of offers of a handshake from Morton players and staff after the final whistle and later apologised.
O’Ware said: “If he didn’t want to shake hands that’s up to him, but I know he shook hands with the gaffer before, so as far as we’re concerned it’s all done with.
“If people want to hold grudges that’s up to them, but we were certainly respectful to them and that’s the way we’ll continue to be.”