God told Efe to head for the Tail o’ the Bank
A week tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of Efe Ambrose helping Celtic stun Europe by beating Barcelona in the Champions League.
But the 34-year-old claims he now gets as much pleasure out of helping Morton’s youngsters as he did from frustrating Xavi, Iniesta and Messi in 2012.
The Nigerian defender was signed by Dougie Imrie on Wednesday and two days later played his first first-team game for more than five months as promotion rivals Inverness Caley Thistle were thrashed 4-0 at Cappielow.
Now the veteran believes that top-flight football could return to the Tail o’ the Bank for the first time since 1983.
“When Dougie called me, I didn’t think twice,” Ambrose explained. “I know his plan, what his dreams and ambitions are, and how he wants things to be at this club.
“I’d seen them play against Hamilton and watched a few of their games on TV. So I knew what they have, and also what I can bring to the team.
“It’s important to have a winning mentality and I think our players do. You need to set yourself goals. I believe Morton can win the league or at least reach the play-offs.
“We just need to keep working as hard as we did against Inverness. I won this division with Hibs and know everybody can beat everybody else in the Championship.
“It’s different from the Premiership where it’s Celtic and Rangers then everybody else.
“Any team can come here and take a point, just as we can go anywhere and get a result. So you need to fight for everything.
“Our home record is good and we are up there competing with the best.”
Ambrose believed his decade in Scotland would be over after he left Dunfermline in May. But a lack of concrete offers – plus divine intervention – proved him wrong. “There were a few offers before Morton but the important thing is what you have in your hand,” he said.
“I pray a lot, and when God tells me: ‘This is where I want you to go, and this is the direction I want you to go in’, then I have no hesitation in going there.
“I wasn’t worried when other offers came to nothing because I believed in my capabilities. I knew it was all about timing.”
In the other Friday-night game, Queen’s Park and Dundee shared four goals at Ochilview.
Now Spiders’ left-back, Tommy Robson, believes they can emerge from the pack – if they are more courageous. The 27-year-old said: “If we had been braver, we would have won. We played well in the first-half, got the ball down and moved it. We didn’t do that enough in the second-half.
“In the end it felt like a defeat and that shows how far we have come.
“A lot of people wrote us off at the start of the season but I know we have got it in us to be successful.
“Every club has gone on a winning run, then on a bad run, then back on a winning run. The teams that go on the longest winning run are usually the ones who start to take it away. I hope we can be that team.”
The Dark Blues pleased manager Gary Bowyer by hitting back twice to gain a point.
The scorer of their second equaliser, Derick Osei, had an anxious wait for his goal to be awarded by referee Barry Cook, with Lee Kilday booked for his protests and Dom Thomas dismissed as he picked up a second yellow for his complaints.
Osei said: “I didn’t care about what they were doing. The most important thing is that I scored.
“I was a bit worried when the referee spoke to his assistant, but I trusted him.”