JIM Duffy says his side were ‘terrific’ in Saturday’s 1-0 home victory over Raith Rovers — after a fresh injury problem to Gavin Gunning made it even more difficult for his players.

Gunning pulled up after 37 minutes with a hamstring issue that could see the Irishman sitting on the treatment table for a number of weeks. 

And the 25-year-old is the latest in a long list of crocked Ton players which includes captain Lee Kilday, Ricki Lamie, Conor Pepper and Michael Tidser.

Goalkeeper Andrew McNeil was also replaced by Derek Gaston as a precaution in the dying minutes of the game after he was caught with a trailing leg by Rovers sub Mark Stewart, and Duffy reckons his team were fully deserving of the three points at the weekend — especially after having to adapt to another set-back.

Duffy said: “Gavin has pulled or torn his hamstring, we’re not quite sure which yet.

“You’d think if it was going to go it would have went after playing three games in a week! 

“Particularly in the cup game midweek.

“We had actually eased him off in training this week just to get his legs back so it’s just one of those things. 

“That’s what happens when players don’t have a pre-season, they come into game speed which is entirely different from training. 

“It takes a toll on the muscles and unfortunately that’s what has happened.

“Andy got a head knock from a deflected free-kick, someone’s caught him with their knee or foot. 

“There are certain things you can’t take any chances with but thankfully we’ve got two really good goalkeepers.

“We ended up playing Jamie McDonagh at right-back, Michael Doyle at centre-back, Andy Murdoch came in and we had to change the goalkeeper as well. So taking everything into consideration it was a fantastic performance.

“Overall I thought in terms of the performance we were terrific. In the first half we were outstanding, the movement and link-up play, creativity — everything you want from the team allied with the work ethic made us deserved leaders at half-time.

“The second half you know it’s going to be difficult because of the changes we’ve had to make defensively, but we’ve still looked a threat in the final third so over the balance of the 90 minutes we definitely deserved to win.

“To get a clean sheet, I’m delighted for the team. We played some good stuff and deserved to win.”