MORTON manager Jim Duffy felt a creditable draw with promotion-chasing Hibs was a fitting way to sign off at Cappielow this season.

The Greenock men brought down the curtain at home with a match against an Easter Road outfit that had recently booked their place in the Scottish Cup final before beating Rangers in midweek.

But that momentum was brought to a halt on Saturday as the Ton held Alan Stubbs’ side to a goalless draw with an industrious and disciplined display.

Duffy believes it was important to make a final positive impression in front of their own supporters and was satisfied that was something his squad achieved based on the reciprocal show of respect they exchanged with the Cowshed at full-time.

The Ton boss told the Tele: “I was delighted with our performance and our attitude, and to make it as difficult as we did do for Hibs was always going to be important.

"Really, to stifle the threat that they’ve got takes a lot and our players deserve enormous credit for that. As a team we worked extremely hard, I thought we were very organised and that attitude and work ethic was evident again.

“I mean, they have real quality in midfield and up front and score a barrow load of goals, so for us to relegate them to a couple of shots from distance …

“When Bobby [Barr] went through and put it past the goalkeeper, it looked as if it was going in, but hits the post and we’re maybe a wee bit unfortunate there.

“But over the piece a point for us against a side of the quality of Hibs, who have reached two national cup finals and with every chance of getting promotion, is a good point.

“The most important thing for our players and for the fans in our last home game is that we showed a real spirit. Everybody likes to see that commitment from players.

“At the end the fans applauded the players and I think they deserved that applause and those plaudits.

“I think the fans have appreciated the effort the players have put in this season, and we appreciated the response at the end of the game as well and went over to show that as a team.

“It’s always good that, always positive, because that kind of togetherness is vital within a football club.

“So, it was important to end with a positive performance. You always get greedy and want the three points, but against a club of Hibs’ quality, a hard-earned point is a decent way to finish.”

Prior to the game, Duffy brought up the disappointment of the derby defeat to St Mirren as a reminder that a response was required in the final two fixtures.

He explained: “I felt we let ourselves down last week and I told the players that and we emphasised during the week that we still wanted to end the season strongly.

“To be honest, I didn’t think we were terrible in the derby, we just underperformed a bit and we just didn’t have the same mentality as we’ve shown in every other game.

“I didn’t want that to filter through and then have the last couple of games just ticked off. We wanted to show the supporters that the results do mean something to us.

“That there is that effort and determination there to get a result, and I think we managed to achieve that today.”

Duffy has often lamented his young team’s inability to eke out a result in tight games, but he felt Saturday was the perfect example of what they need to do on a more frequent basis next year.

He said: “I’ve mentioned game management often, and today I thought we managed the game a lot, lot better than we have on occasions.

“We knew there weren’t going to be too many chances and, therefore, what we didn’t want to do was lose something sloppy, lose a late goal or make an error just before half-time.

“So from that point of view, it was important that we managed the game today. 

“And if we could have done that four or five other times in the season then I think those type of points would have been a fair reflection of our performances.”