Brechin fall under Ton of pressure

Jim Duffy praised Morton after they ran riot against basement club Brechin to keep up their hopes of a play-off spot.

Isaac Layne managed to draw Brechin level in the first half after Gary Oliver’s early opener for Ton.

But goals from Scott Tiffoney, Gary Harkins and Jai Quitongo wrapped up the points for the home side.

He said: “The only disappointing thing is we made one error and Brechin capitalised but generally we were on the front foot from the first minute to the last.

“This gets us a little bit closer to the teams at the top end. This division is so cut-throat. Teams at the top have been very consistent – we’ve got to keep chipping away.”

Ton got off to a flier in four minutes when Ross Forbes whipped the ball in for Oliver whose slight touch guided it in off the post.

But Brechin grabbed a surprising leveller with their first real chance as Layne capitalised on poor defending.

Any hopes of a City revival were short-lived though as the home side restored their lead in 44 minutes thanks to Tiffoney’s unconventional finish off his knee and into the net.

Morton were in control once again after the restart and with 20 minutes remaining Harkins sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot after Oliver was clipped.

City were looking tired at the back and Forbes found room to square it to sub Quitongo to tap in a fourth into an empty net late on.

Brechin boss Darren Dods said: “We got off to a poor start. For some reason we haven’t really got going in the last two games. We usually finish games strongly but we were maybe feeling sorry for ourselves.”