MICHAEL Doyle believes the international break has come at the perfect time for Morton despite interrupting their current good run of form — as an escalating injury crisis has ravaged the squad.

Gavin Gunning and Andrew McNeil were both forced off with injuries during Saturday’s win over Raith Rovers at Cappielow, and they joined an already full treatment table that includes Lee Kilday, Rickie Lamie, Conor Pepper, Michael Tidser and Kudus Oyenuga.

Doyle reckons a free Saturday will afford some of the injured contingent a bit of valuable time on their road back to fitness ahead of big games against Queen of the South and the League Cup semi-final with Aberdeen at Hampden.

The 25-year-old told the Tele: “The break has come at a great time for us, but sometimes it can go against you. We’re in a good bit of a run just now with wins in three out of the last four. 

“But with the injuries we’ve got, especially at the back — Gavin, Ricki and Lee — we’re hoping to have them back for Queen of the South and the Aberdeen games but I don’t know how far away they are just now.

“I’ve seen them all out there doing a bit of rehab, so the timing could be ideal for us to get them back for these big games.”

Doyle was delighted with the resilience Ton showed on Saturday and has saluted match-winner Ross Forbes for producing the moment of magic which clinched three precious points.

He said: “It was a good goal and we had a couple of other chances to kill the game off as well, but we dug in and defended really well.

“The free-kick was a cracker but it’s not the first time he’s done it. The boys know round about the box we can play a bit of football and if someone dives in, we know Forbesy is there to do that.

“It was a big blow when we lost big Gavin, he had done so well in the middle of the defence.

“But it showed that the boys could get moved about and stick in to grind out results, which you have to do in this league.”

Former St Johnstone stopper Doyle reckons that Morton are improving with each week that passes, as the squad blends and recent signings find their feet.

He said: “We played a lot better football at the weekend than we did at the start of the season and we’re starting to settle in. It was always going to take time, I said that at the start of the season when we had a couple of draws that we probably should’ve won against Falkirk and St Mirren.

“I always thought that if we start to tighten up in the last 10 minutes of games then we’d see out games.

“We don’t need to win every game by two or three goals like other teams, one-nil is as good as two or three.”

Ton are unbeaten at Cappielow this term and Doyle — who took time to praise the team’s supporters for their recent backing — hopes the side’s good run will continue to go under the radar of those outside the club. 

He said: “Not a lot of people have actually mentioned that we’re undefeated at home.

“We’ve only lost three or four games all season, so the boys are competing in every game.

“If you can compete in this league, you’ll be there or thereabouts.

“It’s a long season so you want to put your points on the board.

“At Cappielow we can beat anybody, and we’ve proven that.

“There’s a lot of good positivity about the place just now with the fans getting behind us on Saturday as well, so it’s great.”