Preview: Morton meet Raith in final home game of season

The Greenock men go into their penultimate fixture of 2023-24 sitting in fifth place in the Championship, and with just two matches remaining they are determined to stay there.

Locked out of the top four, the best they will be able to achieve this year is matching last season's finish, but to guarantee that they'll need a few more points.

Last Saturday's victory over Arbroath was enough to remove the spectre of the relegation play-off place which had still been a possibility.

Their win, coupled with the failure of under-pressure Queen's Park to beat Dunfermline, means that the Spiders in ninth can no longer catch them.

That draw at East End Park was also good news from the perspective of allowing Dougie Imrie's men to leapfrog the Pars.

With eighth-placed Inverness also losing to Raith Rovers on Friday evening, the weekend results couldn't have been any better for Ton.

But they could still slip back into the bottom half depending on how things work out over the next eight days, so they have to keep their foot on the pedal.

As tempting as it may be to think that it's a case of 'job done' with the pressure now off, there is still a good bit to play for.

The higher Morton can finish in the division the better the prize money for the club, and every single penny will count when it comes to setting the budget for the summer.

No one wants to see things fizzle out in disappointing fashion, and with a trip to the Highlands in the offing next Friday night as well it really is in Ton's interests to collect something from tomorrow's game.

They can be relied upon to give it their all, as whatever their failings this season a shortage of graft certainly wasn't one of them.

This is a hard-working squad of players who have given their all over what has become a testing campaign due to the injuries which left a relatively-small squad very stretched at key points along the way.

They may have come up short of their goal of going one better than 12 months ago and making the promotion shootout, but there has been no lack of honest endeavour.

That was evident once again at Gayfield as they battled their way to an important three points against an already-relegated Arbroath.

The Red Lichties have endured a wretched season and Ton were quite rightly expected to dispatch them, but the visitors were done no favours beforehand by the interview given by Caley Thistle boss Duncan Ferguson, who questioned the professionalism of Jim McIntyre's players by stating that they had 'downed tools on their club and on their manager'.

The comments were out of order and reflect poorly on Ferguson, who would perhaps be better served by getting his own team's house in order first before mouthing off about rival clubs.

His outburst would no doubt have done McIntyre's pre-match team talk for him and his players were well on top during the first half at Gayfield.

But for goalkeeper Ryan Mullen, the visitors probably would have been behind by the break.

As Imrie himself admitted after the game, his side's first half showing was nowhere near good enough.

Thankfully they improved markedly after the restart and two quickfire goals from Robbie Crawford and the returning George Oakley just before the hour mark were enough for them, despite the defensive lapse which allowed the hosts to pull a goal back with around 20 minutes left.

Ton went on to see the game out pretty comfortably on a day when the performance was always going to be secondary to the result.

They will face a different kind of test tomorrow when Ian Murray brings his Rovers side to town as they close out an impressive campaign where they have given title-winners Dundee United a more than decent run for their money.

The investment the Kirkcaldy club was able to make in bolstering the playing squad over the summer established them as credible challengers to the pre-season favourites and having finished well clear in second place they now have to frank the formbook in the play-offs by making the final.

They were more than a touch fortunate to emerge from the Highlands with all three points last weekend, with Inverness somehow denied by a combination of the woodwork and inspired goalkeeping by Kevin Dabrowski.

There doesn't appear to be any sign of Rovers taking their foot off the gas in advance of the play-offs. Murray clearly wants them going into that challenge with a bit of momentum, although it wouldn't be a huge surprise to seem him shuffle his pack a bit tomorrow.

He has the size of squad to do it and will likely want to ensure everyone has time on the pitch and give a breather for a couple of key men.

Games between Ton and them have been tight this season, but Imrie has been left smarting by the fact his side have only managed to collect one point from them thus far.

You get the feeling he would very much like to change that statistic tomorrow, and sign-off in front of the Cowshed in style.