Lewis Spence was the hero as Hamilton Accies grabbed their first Championship win in six games, against Morton at New Douglas Park.
Dougie Imrie's side gave as good as they got in an uninspiring first half, but Spence's fine finish just after the interval separated these sides, presenting him with a second goal of the season.
The result ends Morton's six-game unbeaten run, and puts Accies back up to sixth in the table, as they leapfrog their visitors, though the Greenock side have a game in hand.
A frankly dull first half ended goal-less, with one clear-cut chance each. Cameron Blues forced a good save from Joe Hilton, while at the other end Dan O'Reilly had a header cleared off the line.
That changed very quickly in the second half when Spence put Accies ahead with a fine low finish, and it forced Morton to come out more.
Head coach Stuart Taylor made three changes to the Accies side that drew 2-2 at Arbroath on February 9. In came Marley Redfern, Spence and Kai Kennedy, for Brian Easton, Scott Martin and Andy Ryan.
Morton manager Dougie Imrie made just one change to the side that beat Queen of the South 2-1 on Saturday, with Iain Wilson in for Gary Oliver.
Morton went into this game on a six-game unbeaten league run, with four wins and two draws since Imrie took over in December. Their only defeat was at Premiership side Motherwell in the Scottish Cup fourth round, and that went to extra-time.
The visitors created the first real chance in eight minutes when Jamie Brandon was picked out wide on the right and he found Cameron Blues, but his low shot was palmed away from the right corner by Joe Hilton.
Hamilton were dealt a blow in 11 minutes when Jamie Hamilton went down with an injury during Morton's attack, but that meant a debut for Steve Lawson.
Accies tried to get forward but it never quite fell for them. In 13 minutes Redfern was sent down the right and his cross was missed by David Moyo in the middle, but fell to Kennedy on the left. His cross bounced about in the box and Moyo had two stabs at getting control, but wasn't able to.
Four minutes later Mimnaugh's corner from the right was met with a powerful header by Dan O'Reilly that was cleared off the line, with Hamilton claiming it had crossed the line.
Blues was fortunate only to see yellow for a scything challenge on Kennedy in 24 minutes.
When Redfern found his cross from the right likely to be blocked, he instead checked inside and had a go, but Jack Hamilton saved comfortably on the half-hour.
Mihai Popescu put himself on a booking in first-half stoppage time for a pull back on Morton's Gavin Reilly.
Hamilton opened the scoring just over a minute into the second half when Kieran MacDonald's cross from the left wasn't cleared by the Morton defence and Spence rifled a low shot into the bottom left corner from just outside the box.
Morton tried to force their way into the game but the closest they had come by 70 minutes was a Reilly shot that flew well over from 19 yards.
Hamilton didn't offer too much either, but held on for a vital three points.
HAMILTON: Hilton, Hamilton (Lawson, 11), Popescu, O'Reilly, MacDonald, Mimnaugh, Redfern (Smith, 56), Mullin, Spence (Martin, 86), Moyo, Kennedy.
Subs (not used): Fulton (GK), Easton, Hughes, Winter, Shiels, Brown.
Booked: Popescu (45+1), Lawson (57)
MORTON: Hamilton, McEntee, McLean (Ledger, 77), Lithgow, Strapp (Easdale, 89), Wilson, Lyon (Oliver, 70), Brandon, Blues (Muirhead, 70), Ugwu, Reilly (Hynes, 89).
Subs (not used): Bysouth (GK), Russell, McGregor, King.
Booked: Blues (24)
Referee: Andrew Dallas.
Attendance: 1360.
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