by Colin Orr at Cappielow Park

ST MIRREN boss Danny Lennon was delighted to see his side win the Renfrewshire Cup for the fifth time in a row after a penalty shootout win over Morton at Cappielow tonight.

Saints held their nerve to lift the old trophy 4-3 on spot-kicks after a goal-less 90 minutes - although Lennon revealed they nearly went into the shootout without a keeper.

He said: "We wanted to get our better strikers of the ball on. We wanted the boy Lynch on but he wasn't ready as I had lost track of the time.

"In saying that, I said to Iain Jenkins we'll take off McAusland and put Brady on and we'll get Lynch on and get Gallacher off!

"You always hope you're challenging for cups and we're delighted. A great crowd came down and we appreciated that.

"It's the first one we've had in a competitive atmosphere and it's the first time I've ever seen Allan Moore holding out for a draw!

"It was good to get another competitive game under our belt. I felt Morton competed very well and knocked the ball about well at times.

"But that's us into the third week and we're getting there now. It was a great exercise and we're delighted to get that first win away.

"We're asking them to try and break quickly but sometimes you've just got to try and take the sting out of the game and bring the ball back out but we got there.

"We had three very good chances in the first half and one with Dargo in the second half and everything Morton had was long range and from outwith the box."

Saints lined up with a new signing on the bench, with Paul McGowan having joined this afternoon on a season-long loan from Celtic.

And Lennon revealed the Club faced a mad dash to get their new arrival from Paisley to Greenock on time for tonight's game.

He said: "It just happened at 5:30pm so we had to leave somebody at the training ground while we travelled and we weren't sure whether we would get him on the bench.

"We are delighted to get him and he'll be a great addition to the squad. I was surprised at the stick he got from their fans because he was an absolutely wonderful player for them.

"Paul was in training with Celtic today and had a hard session in there so regardless of what happened we wouldn't have started him tonight."

Morton boss Allan Moore watched his side win on penalties at Dumbarton in the Challenge Cup on Sunday and was disappointed they couldn't repeat the trick tonight.

But the ex-Stirling gaffer was pleased to see his new-look side hold their own against top-division opponents.

He said: "It was a good performance. We played good football and passed it well and it was a pretty even game all round.

"The big boy Higdon was causing us problems but I am pleased we stood up well to the muscle St Mirren had.

"My instruction for the penalties was to strike through the ball and a couple of them didn't do that. But we got a bit of luck on Sunday and I'd rather we won that than this one.

"Kevin Cuthbert had a few good saves but we gave the ball away in silly areas. But that's four clean sheets this pre-season and that's against good opposition tonight.

"At this moment, we are not concerned about the lack of goals. Our forwards will cause problems against teams in our division. We have to remember we were playing quality opposition tonight."

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