LEADING the Irn-Bru First Division at this stage of the season is about as useful as having your nose in front after three fences of the Grand National.
It is Dunfermline Athletic who occupy top spot this morning, their draw with Falkirk and Partick Thistle's defeat by Morton, allowing the Fife side to hold the narrowest of advantages going into the international break, but no winner can yet be selected.
It is from those four teams that this year's champions are likely to emerge but who will cross the line first remains to be seen. There is unlikely to be a repeat of the scenario of 12 months ago, as Ross County bolted from the pack to canter over the winning line with ease, however.
"I never saw the first division last year but, by all accounts, Ross County did run away with it," said Martin Hardie, the Morton midfielder. "If there are three teams going for the league then it only promotes the first division better. When one team is running away with it, it becomes a non-contest.
"From the start of the season until now, having watched quite a lot of games, there are three, possibly four, teams I think should be at the top of the league for the majority of the season."
Victory for Morton, achieved courtesy of first-half headers from Kevin Rutkiewicz and Mark McLaughlin and a late David O'Brien strike, moved the Greenock side closer to the early season pacesetters. Steven Craig had pulled Thistle level but their unbeaten league record came to an end, with two uncharacteristic defensive errors costing them dearly.
"We have come away with nothing," said Jackie McNamara, the Thistle manager. "We have got to dust ourselves down. We have got a semi-final next week and it is another game where we will have to make sure we defend set-pieces properly."
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