Only the best will do for Morton manager Jim Duffy

Morton manager Jim Duffy reckons that only the best from his side will give them any chance of defeating St Johnstone at Cappielow and sending the Greenock club into the semi-finals of the League Cup for the first time since 1979.

Morton manager Jim Duffy was boosted by Saturday's win against Alloa. Picture: SNS

The Greenock head into the game boosted by their first win since they knocked Motherwell out in the last round five weeks ago.

However, their 1-0 success over Alloa will not have the Perth men quaking in their boots according to Duffy. The Morton manager said: “It certainly helps our case going into the game after a win, but if St Johnstone were watching they will not have lost any sleep as it was not a great game.

“They will have seen that we are a determined side. However, they beat Rangers at Ibrox and won 5-1 at Aberdeen, so they must be a very good side.

“Their consistency since Tommy Wright has gone in as their manager has been exceptional. They will come here with a belief that they should be in the latter stages of the tournament and they will make it very difficult for us.”

Duffy’s side reached the last eight after a win over Motherwell although Duffy reckons that his side are still huge underdogs despite that success as he explained: “You need to put that result into perspective as they were a side who were pretty down at the time and they changed their manager shortly after that.

“Things were not clicking for them and we were terrific on the night. There was a bit of crowd trouble that stopped the game and that was annoying as we were in control, but fortunately we kept going.

“We will need a similar performance to do something in this game and we will also need St Johnstone to be off the pace a bit as well.”

Duffy added: “Our win on Saturday calmed everyone down and everyone was smiling when they came in for training this morning.

“We want to be in the semi-finals as it has been a long, long time since this club was involved in anything like 
that.

“We are determined to win. However, we recognise that we are up against a top side with an exceptional manager so we have to be at our best.”

Romario Sabajo was taken to hospital after Saturday’s game with an ankle problem and he joins Ricki Lamie, former Saint Peter MacDonald and Alex Samuel in missing out.