Celebration Time But Still Hard Work To Be Done

Morton manager Jim Duffy has praised his squad for securing a promotion play-off place to reach the Premiership, declaring their efforts this season as outstanding. Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Ayr United was enough to guarantee the Ton a place in the top four and a crack at earning a spot in next term’s top flight when the regular season ends next month. Duffy had to watch from the stands as he served the first of a two-game touchline ban and Craig McPherson met the media in his stead, but the Ton manager made a point of speaking after the game in order to congratulate his players.

 Jim Duffy (c) Jane Barlow/PA Archive/PA Images

Duffy said: "I want to give a huge congratulations to the players for their efforts over the course of an unbelievably long season.  We started back in mid-July in the Betfred Cup and to cement a top-four place with two games to spare means the players deserve an enormous amount of credit.  You can see a few of them are really tired just now for the amount of work they put in. We’ve also had to cope with serious injuries to key players right through the season.  But the one thing we’ve always had is that desire and togetherness, and that allied to our talent has given us that opportunity to fight for a place in the Premiership, to fight for promotion.  I don’t think it should be underestimated how difficult a task it was to finish in the top four in this Championship with two games to spare.  If you look at the teams in this division – and not just the other teams in the top three positions – but all the teams, I think it’s an outstanding effort from the players and they should be congratulated and applauded for it.  We know our season’s not finished yet, and we’ll give it everything we’ve got, but we’re in with a chance, and that’s a great testimony to the efforts of the players.