According to the Morton boss, his side’s home advantage is not as pronounced as that of other clubs because opposition players actually love performing on groundsman Mark Farrell’s pristine playing surface.

Duffy though is determined that the Ton’s performances on that park will mean rivals leave knowing they’ve been in a game and much less enthused about their return visit.

He told the Tele: “Thankfully we’re at Cappielow this time. We’ve played them enough times down at Palmerston. That’s the one thing that’s a wee bit different, us being at home.

“It’s not on an artificial surface, so the players will be a wee bit more relaxed — but I know from speaking to a lot of the Queens guys that they love playing at Cappielow as well.

“Everybody loves playing at Cappielow because of the pitch. When teams come to our ground and walk down the side of the park, the first thing they do is comment on it.

“You hear that all the time, from every coach and every manager, they come and say to you: ‘the pitch looks great’.

“A good grass pitch is something that players love playing on, but they don’t all love playing on an artificial surface. So I don’t think we get as much of a home advantage when you compare it to, say, an artificial pitch. It’s not an advantage for us in the sense that it gives us something over the opposition.

“But you can have a psychological home advantage and that’s something you need to build over a concerted period of time.

“And in the last couple of results we’ve managed to play pretty well and win two of them, taking aside the cup game against St Johnstone, and even then we made it a real tough game for them.

“One thing we want to do, and have been doing, and continue to do, is compete. Although we always say the opposition is difficult, but we make it difficult for them as well.

“There’s no team going to play Morton, or have played Morton, this year who can say: ‘We coasted through that one.’ “If you look through the season, the Rangers game aside, even the [league] games we’ve lost, it’s only been by one goal. We’ve always been in with a chance of getting something from games.

“That’s the thing that we want: we want teams to come here and know that they are going to be in a game. And if we take that same mentality into the Queen of the South game I’ll be delighted.” The three previous meetings down in Dumfries have been keenly contested encounters, with the sides’ sharing a 2-2 draw as well as boasting one narrow win apiece.

And Duffy doesn’t see any reason why tomorrow’s match won’t be an equally tight and competitive contest.

He explained: “In all the games we played pretty well and the first two were good results. The last one we were a bit unlucky not to get something.

“We won 1-0 in the cup, drew 2-2 and lost 1-0. That shows how tight and evenly balanced the games were. Queen of the South are going to come and work hard and be organised. They haven’t lost many goals recently, have a mix of experience in key areas and young talent.

“So I expect it to be similar sort of game — why would it be any different? — and don’t think there’ll be too much between the teams again, so it might just take a break one way or the other to [decide it].” Morton head into the fixture on a roll having won their last three league matches but Duffy is reluctant to go overboard when discussing their current form besides saying it will boost belief.

He explained: “I think it’s too short a run of victories to read too much into and say we’re on a really good run. The test isn’t to have a purple patch of three or four games; it’s to find consistency over a concerted period of time.

“And I’d say the same if we lost the same number of games, because it can happen in this league. That’s the nature of it.

“For me, it’s just the game ahead and if we win that then I think it would be a terrific points tally over the last four games. That’s the way I look at it: adding points to the tally “But they [recent results] have given us the belief we can go and win this game tomorrow and that’s the most important thing, because you go into it confident feeling we can win this.” While he has been pleased with his team’s defending, organisation, work-rate, effort, and bravery in those outings, there is still a specific area in which he is looking for improvement.

He added: “I think we can still do a bit better. We can improve a bit in the final third. I don’t just mean scoring goals.

“I mean that creative spark, linking up the play a little bit better, moving the ball a wee bit quicker, making better final decisions and a better selection of passes.

“Sometimes we get into good areas and the selection’s right but the quality’s not there: we’ve seen the pass and went on and over-hit it, under-hit it, it’s been cut out or whatever it may be. I still think there’s a bit of improvement to come in that area and we’ll continue to work on it, but a lot of the guys are still young, have a lot to learn and will improve.

“Denny [Johnstone], for instance, has improved. I think his general game was very good anyway, but you can see improvement in him and an air of belief about him just now.

“I actually thought Joe McKee was going to take the penalty on Saturday because we had done a few penalties, but Denny decided to take it and I think that showed his confidence.” Johnstone’s goals have fired Ton to their last two victories, and another win tomorrow would see them leapfrog both Queens and idle Raith Rovers into fourth place.

Duffy recognises his players will look at the league placings and would find it gratifying to move into the top half of the table but also insists that picking up three points is all the incentive they need.

He said: “We’re one point behind Queen of the South, [who] most people would have said would be one of the main challengers for the play-offs. So we’re doing okay.

“Is the fact we could go up to fourth an incentive? It probably would be for players. For me, it doesn’t matter to me. But, cosmetically, I think players like to look at the league table and see themselves in the top half as opposed to the bottom half.

“I’m always a wee bit wary of using the term ‘incentive’, though. I don’t see it as an incentive. That means they have an extra reason to play well. I think the reason should always be to be the best you can be. The players would be every bit as determined to win the match even if it meant staying the same place.”