Niall McGinn says Cappielow can be feared after Morton win

The former Aberdeen and Celtic man put in a classy performance in behind Lamar Reynolds as Ton put in a dominant display against a side who've gained a lot of plaudits over the last year or so.

And he was left pleased with the way his side went about their business as a whole to get their first three points of the season.

McGinn says he believes Morton can make their home turf a place no visiting team will enjoy playing if they can continue to turn out similar performances in the coming weeks - and detailed just what his side can begin to use to their advantage.

Niall McGinn says Morton can turn Cappielow into a place to be feared if they can repeat their performance in Saturday's win over Airdrie. (Image: alex craig) He told the Tele: "It was a comfortable win, but that doesn't mean we didn't have to work hard for it.

"It's always the same when the opposition goes down to ten men and you've only got the one-nil lead. 

"You're that little bit nervy, but you're creating chances and you're wanting that goal to go in.

"Thankfully it came at a good time for us, and that meant we could see the game out quite comfortably.

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"We were able to get our first three points in the league, which we're delighted with. Every game in this league is extremely difficult and I thought that both in and out of possession we were comfortable.

"At times we sat off them, and at other times we used our strengths to set after them, get on the ball and create chances."

McGinn had a crucial role to play in the game's opening goal, making a defence-splitting run to latch on to Ali Crawford's pass before picking out Zak Delaney to head home at the back post.

Niall McGinn's cross set up Zak Delaney to head home the opening goal. (Image: Kevin Tallant) Reflecting on his role in the move, McGinn said: "I've always tried to get myself into good positions. It's about knowing when's right to smash the ball across the box or to sort of lift it up. Thankfully Zak came into the back post to head it home.

"We've got some tall players in the team, so you can use different kind of crosses at different times to make the most of them. That's what worked for us today.

"The gaffer set us up really well. I thought Lamar Reynolds was excellent for us up front. I got myself into nice positions, as did Ali Crawford and Arron Lyall. 

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"The midfield moved up and down nicely whilst the defence looked really organised. Cammy [Ballantyne] and Zak were keen to come and support us at the right times, and I don't think Ryan Mullen had much to do in net.

"We want to make this a place where teams find it difficult to come away with three points, so we need to build on that now and move forward."

McGinn says the 90-minute performance on Saturday was exactly what he and his team-mates had been working to put together over the previous weeks.

He believes that Ton need to continue to find the right balance between defence and attack, with the comfort of knowing they'll always create opportunities.

Morton players celebrate after Cammy Ballantyne's late strike sealed victory over Airdrieonians. (Image: Kevin Tallant) He added: "If we can perform like that every week, then we'll win more weeks than not.

"We've been talking about it in-house during the week. We feel that we, for whatever reason, just hadn't had that 90-minute performance. We definitely got that on Saturday.

"We were defensively organised on top of creating those chances

"It's about finding that balance between attacking and defending, and it's now about building upon the clean sheet because we know we'll always be able to create."