MORTON breakout star Scott Tiffoney reckons a summer pre-season training camp in Bulgaria has been the launch pad for his current crack at the first-team.

The 17-year-old was one of 16 Ton development squad members to spend a fortnight in the eastern European nation in the weeks prior to the senior team’s return to pre-season training.

There, in the Black Sea resort of Varna, they were put through their paces by Under-20s boss Andy Millen and head of youth Derek Anderson.

Tiffoney is feeling the benefit of the gruelling sessions and believes they set him up to go and make the impact he has in top-team matches against Livingston, Albion Rovers, and Clyde.

He told the Tele: “I went away to Bulgaria with the 20s. It was good but it was hard work because of the heat over there. It was 30-odd degrees – a bit like Tuesday night except every day.

“That was on top of the hard training we were doing. It was fitness work in the morning then in the gym or ball work for the double session. 

“Andy Millen’s training is quite tough but it’s good for us. I feel fitter for it and it has given us a head start fitness-wise. 

“It’s definitely benefitted me in the first-team matches I’ve played, because I wouldn’t have been able to get up and down the park in the same way. It’s a hard shift.”

According to Tiffoney, the only downside to the trip was the Bulgarian food, which he insists couldn’t compare to the cooking at home.

He laughed: “A lot of the boys were tweeting they were looking forward to getting home, but it wasn’t because of the training — it was the food. Over there it was all different, a bit weird and hard to take — not the usual food that my mum would make!”

Tiffoney scored a double on his first senior start in a recent friendly against Livingston and then netted a pressure penalty in the League Cup shootout against Albion Rovers at the weekend.

He followed that up by marking his competitive bow with a sponsors’ man of the match award in Tuesday’s League Cup win over Clyde, and the teen admits it has been hard to take it all in.

He said: “It was a weird feeling scoring the double against Livingston, especially when I scored my first one. Luckily half-time came soon after it — because I didn’t know what to do. I was more nervous playing against Livingston, because that was my first start, than I was on Tuesday night. By then it felt like any other game.

“I was happy with my performance against Clyde and actually got presented with an engraved shield as man of the match.

“I thought I was a bit shaky in the first 20 minutes but found my feet from there and got into the game and started getting into the game.

“I thought I did alright but I just need to work on hitting the target more with my shots to get myself a couple more goals.”

Back in December 2013, then Ton 17s coach Derek Allan picked out wideman Tiffoney as a special talent with a big future.

Speaking in the Telegraph’s regular Morton Futures feature, ex-Southampton defender Allan said: “I’m excited about Scott. He is actually an Under-16, so we will have two years working with him.

“Scott’s technically gifted and has a football brain no one of his age should ever have. He’s three or four steps ahead of the opposition and works in between the lines.

“He’s very slight at the moment and still has to develop physically, but he is only 15 so has plenty of time to grow.

“Like all of the boys at this age, he also has a lot to learn but if he continues to work hard, it’s up to him how far he goes.”

Allan actually refused to express his full thoughts on the record at the risk of inflating the lad’s ego, and it is clear that approach has helped keep Tiffoney’s feet firmly on the ground.

When asked if his ambitions were to now retain his place in the starting line-up, the Glasgow-born forward said: “Do I think I’ve done enough to put myself in the manager’s plans? I don’t know.

“It’s up to the gaffer really, isn’t it? I’m not looking too much into it. I’m just enjoying things at the moment and taking it game by game and seeing what happens.”