MORTON elder statesman Ross Forbes has been impressed by Jai Quitongo and his fellow academy colts in training and reckons they have deserved the opportunities handed to them by Jim Duffy.

At 27, the midfielder was the Ton’s oldest outfield player against Kilmarnock on Saturday, with only goalkeeper Andy McNeil surpassing him in the age stakes.

Forbes has enjoyed playing alongside the crop of talented teenagers making their breakthrough in the League Cup group stage and has been far from surprised to see them shine.

He said: “What the gaffer asked us to do worked and came off, and it’s always nice when that happens.

“It happened on Tuesday night as well. We worked on things on Tuesday morning and the boys took it on board and it came off. That’s obviously three clean sheets, two victories and another victory on penalties, so things are going well.

“We lost a lot of players in the summer, so our good start is credit to the gaffer and the boys who have pushed through and taken their chance.

“The gaffer’s given them an opportunity, and Jai has done well today and got his goal. Strappy has been playing at left-back and is 16, Tiff is 17. These are boys the gaffer knew were there.

“They are next to us every day in training and we know they are good enough. They won their league last year, so I think it’s only right they got their chance to shine and they have done that in the last three games.

“You saw with Jai today and Tiff on Tuesday night that there is no fear. Tiff got man of the match on Tuesday night and Jai got it today.

“It’s positive young boys getting man of the match in these types of games, especially coming away to a Premiership team it’s brilliant.”

When asked if he has been frustrated to see rival Championship teams strengthen with new signings as Ton search for new recruits, he said: “No, I don’t see why it is.

“You could say strengthen or you could say some of the young boys could be better than what left but they are just experienced players and it looks bad because experienced players are leaving. The young boys are great players and I’m sure the gaffer will still have a few things up his sleeve. It’s still early doors.”

The Ton are now five points clear at the top of their section, and Forbes says the aim is to beat Berwick in their final match and cement first place.

He concluded: “That’s the plan now. Our aim was to come here and give a good account of ourselves. We did that and got the three points. So next week’s a big game and we’ll go out to win that again and hopefully we can do that and top the group.”