Morton 2 Airdrie 0: Cammy Ballantyne haunts old side as McCabe says rock bottom Diamonds felt sorry for themselves
By Ian Steven
Cammy Ballantyne came back to haunt his old club as the former Airdrie defender helped sink 10-man Diamonds and sent them to the bottom of the Championship.
The North Lanarkshire side struggled to gain a foothold in the game leading to gaffer Rhys McCabe worrying about a “feel sorry mentality” at New Broomfield, with his side having lost four of their six Championship games so far.
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Zak Delaney broke the deadlock four minutes before the break when he headed home. And after a red card for midfielder Rhys Armstrong, Ballantyne - who chose not to renew his deal with the Diamonds in the summer - fired in a low strike three minutes from time to make sure of the points.
Gutted Airdrie gaffer Rhys McCabe said: "There was loads of things I wanted to see better. I thought we had a look about us that was almost a kind of feel sorry mentality. Listen, there's a set of circumstances just now in terms of injuries and stuff like that, which, again, I've just said there in the post matches, what do you do?
“Do you sit and sulk and feel sorry and have everyone all giving you the pity? Or do you work hard and get on with it and make the best of what you've got just now? And, I don't think there was enough of that today.
“I would argue we got to the playoffs last year with a young squad, so It's alright because you're on a kind of run of form where results and performances maybe aren't going our way. And the first thing everyone says to me, it's because you've got a young and inexperienced team, yet no one says anything when we get to the playoffs last year.
“I thought there was more than enough areas and chances for us to go and exploit. Especially even down to ten. It's a little more gamble as such, but you have to sacrifice a little bit, you know. “
The home side were on the front foot early on and Morton skipper Kirk Broadfoot had a great chance to open the scoring after 20 minutes thanks to a superb free kick from former Accie Ali Crawford, but the big defender could only deflect his effort into the hands of Murray Johnson.
Airdire almost scored on the counter attack as Lewis McGregor fired across a low delivery to Ben Wilson, but the striker’s clever touch faded the wrong wide of the upright.
The Ton opened the scoring just before half time as former Northern Ireland international Niall McGinn floated a superb cross to the back post for Zak Delaney to sneak in and head home at the back post.
Airdrie’s task was made tougher in 52 minutes as Rhys Armstrong was sent off for a second bookable offence, launching into an ill advised tackle on Delaney.
The woodwork came to the rescue of Airdrie on the hour mark as a cute flick from Reynolds played Lyall clean through on goal, but the midfielders toe poke cannoned off the bar.
Morton wrapped up the points with four minutes remaining as a partially cleared corner fell straight into the path of Cammy Ballantyne to rifle in a half-volley from 20 yards out into the bottom corner.
On Armstrong's dismissal, McCabe added: " Again, deserved red card. No complaints from me. Learning experience, been there myself, being sent off. But it's probably the nature of it.
"We asked for a really robust second half, we could be more aggressive in and out of possession, but that doesn't mean going and being reckless and getting two solid yellows, you know, it just means your intensity, the way that you play, your individual battles and stuff."
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