Sensation

Back to watch Spartans in the Scottish Cup with T and a few more of his friends that he'd brought along for the big day. The opponents today were a league above the visitors in the last round. And unlike Clyde, Morton are flying high - top of Division One, the third tier of Scottish football and two leagues above Spartans.
I must admit to a bit of a soft spot for Morton. When L and I played Championship Manager a lot a while back when we started off the game the Morton job seemed to be the first one that came up so we ended up managing them. And having done it a couple of times, it seemed sensible to use the knowledge we'd gained of the squad next time too. So we both became familiar with the team and its players. That was a few years ago now and I think most of the players I 'knew' from the game have moved on. There's another reason I like them too. When United won the league back in 1983 they had a tricky away fixture at Morton. The United board subsidised the travelling United fans and over 5000 of them made the journey, making it seem like a home game. United won 4-0, a crucial part of the run-in towards the title winning game against Dundee two weeks later.
Before the game this afternoon there was a minute's silence for Arthur Montford, a long-time supporter of Morton and one of the voices of Scottish football as I was growing up. He died earlier in the week aged 85. He was a commentator and anchorman for STV's Scotsport programme. A larger than life character to rival Archie Macpherson who was on the BBC. After the silence - faultlessly observed by the crowd, which is always eerie when the noise stops so completely - they played the theme music from Scotsport over the tannoy. Memories of Sunday afternoons in childhood, watching the highlights from the matches that had been played the day before.
And then it was on to the match itself. In the first half Morton seemed comfortable on the ball, moving it around a little quicker than their hosts and probably worthy of their half-time 1-0 lead. Spartans showed one or two neat touches but generally seemed to waste possession far too often, with the Morton centre-backs winning everything in the air that was lobbed up towards them.
The second half seemed to be following a similar pattern but, slowly and surely, Spartans managed to get back into the game. Morton still looked threatening going forward, but Spartans too started to make progress up front, heading towards the far goal from where we were standing.
And finally it paid off, with a goal from the man with the famous name - Willie Bremner. Both teams made substitutions and one of the Spartan subs was the player that my mate T has sponsored this season. He almost scored within seconds of coming on but his header went over the bar. A couple of minutes later Morton were down to ten men as one of their players got his second booking of the game. They were still pressing though and a powerful shot from the edge of the box just in from of us was well blocked by a Spartans defender.
Then another Morton attack broke down and T's man headed away  with the ball down the wing. The ball was crossed into the box and finally hit into the net. Goal, sensation, as Arthur Montford would have said. Spartans played out the last few minutes, and that was it - a famous cup upset. Who will they draw in the next round? Perhaps my Dundee United, or T's Partick Thistle? One of the Edinburgh teams perhaps?  Although so far only Hibs are through, as Hearts have a very tough game against Celtic tomorrow. But if Spartans can beat the league leaders two divisions above them, why can't the Jambos can do the same to the league leaders just one division higher up?
As the teams left the pitch some of the Morton fans hurled abuse at their players and management team but other, quieter fans offered us their congratulations as we made our way out of the ground together. Classy thing to do considering their obvious disappointment.