Baird says Morton have learned from Parkhead rout

MORTON defender Jack Baird has called for his team- mates to take the positives from their 5- 0 defeat to Celtic and focus on the league after dropping out of the Scottish Cup.

The Premiership champions were 4- 0 up by the break on Saturday but Dougie Imrie’s men prevented their hosts from racking up a cricket score with some stout defending in the second half.

Between the team’s performance and the cash on offer from playing at Parkhead in a televised cup tie, Baird is looking on the bright side following the defeat as he challenged Morton to get back to winning ways against Arbroath this weekend.

“It could have been a long day and we showed character in the second half,” he said. “We didn’t want them to get another four and they could do that to teams.

“They hit the post early in the second half and that was a wee bit of an alarm for us. If it is 5- 0 after 50 minutes you have a mountain to climb.

“It would have been nice to keep a clean sheet in the second half but they get so many chances and score plenty of goals.

“We had a good run and then lost our last two before this. But it is a good tie for the club in terms of finances.

“We have 16 games left in the league and we can focus on that and see how we do.

“When the draw is made you want a big one like this, or a winnable one and then the next round get a big team. We just need to get back to worrying about the league now.”

Morton fell behind early on at Celtic Park when Efe Ambrose was controversially punished for a handball in the box that the centre- half knew nothing about.

The incident caused a stir on social media as punters reacted in disbelief to the decision but Baird believes the officials should be cut a little slack, even if it left the visitors with a mountain to climb.

“I haven’t seen it but I blocked the shot and it hit Efe,” Baird said. “I don’t know if it was a penalty or not but it wasn’t ideal. A few times last season I got a few penalties against me and that was without VAR. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t.

“It was my first time playing with VAR and I didn’t know why we had stopped. It wasn’t an obvious decision. When you speak to the ref he said it was a potential handball but you can’t do anything.”