THE drama of Partick Thistle's 6-1 win was lost on Morton.

It was a blissful ignorance for a side that can ill afford to lose its focus, with Cowdenbeath providing enough of a puzzle to keep the Irn-Bru First Division leaders occupied for much of their Saturday. It took until the second half at Cappielow to find a solution and by then Partick had already worked out how to put four goals past Livingston, although there are no prizes for finishing first. Well, not yet anyway.

The first division title race remains unclear since the two protagonists are currently running different distances; Partick still with two games in hand, the first of which comes against Cowdenbeath in a match rearranged for Wednesday. Morton have been unable to sit comfortably on their two-point cushion, then, as their chief promotion rivals keep threatening to wheech it out from under them the moment they try. An emphatic home win might have acted as a forceful tap on the shoulder of a Morton team that is aware already who is coming up behind them.

They were able to make a gesture in response with the way they overcame Cowdenbeath, with the Fife side having sailed into a two-goal lead only to be left clinging to the wreckage of a second half in which they shipped four. It was the sort of turnaround which can restore a side's sense of belief – even one that's defence had seemed so weak-willed in allowing Cowdenbeath to snatch an early lead – and enabled Allan Moore to treat glibly with a match in which his players had only belatedly found their feet amid the swirling wind. "The tactics were s**** but the weather was good," said the Morton manager.

It was a throwaway line but his squad has caught on to the need to find humour in their circumstances since their ambitions of winning promotion to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League rest in fixtures they cannot affect directly. Allowing their minds to wander occasionally to Firhill in the final weeks of the campaign would only act as a detour the Greenock side can do without if they are to make their way into the top flight.

Moore's natural ebullience is often enough to tease a sense of mischief from his players; with Colin McMenamin interrupting a media interview with Derek Gaston to out the goalkeeper as "a right boring bassa" and Scott Taggart even poking fun at his own contribution, a delightful 25-yard strike for Morton's third goal. "I was just having a wee laugh with the gaffer there that I only score when we really need it," said the full-back, whose only previous goal this season was a late winner at Firhill on Boxing Day.

The campaign is no longer a laughing matter for Cowdenbeath, though. This defeat is only their second in eight matches but such consistency has not been enough to discourage ninth-place Dumbarton, who are still able to move one point ahead of the Fife side by winning their game in hand. It is through such a narrow gap that the air could go out of Cowdenbeath's season, while Colin Cameron found further cause to vent on Saturday.

"At Morton's first goal, I think [referee Iain] Brines gets in the road to start with and then he gives the penalty," said the Cowdenbeath manager. "They got it back to 2-2 and I think we felt a bit sorry for ourselves, because we had worked so hard to get in a great position."