MICHAEL Doyle says Morton’s youthful squad will take tomorrow’s huge Betfred Cup tie in their stride — even though it’s the biggest game of their young careers.

At 25-years-old Doyle is one of the elder statesmen at Cappielow, but the right-back reckons the younger players’ inexperience can actually be a benefit to the squad rather than a hindrance at Hampden.

He told the Tele: “It’s the biggest game in a lot of the boys’ careers. 

“We’re in a League Cup semi-final, a national cup on the TV with the chance to get Celtic or Rangers in the final. We’ve got a really young squad so it’s the biggest game.

“I think we’ve taken it in our stride because a lot of the boys are very confident in their own ability. You have to have that. 

“If anything, you kind of lose that when you get a bit older because you gain the experience to think ‘oh we better try and hold out’ during games. But when you’re young and hungry, you realise you’ve got a chance in any game.

“I think in some instances, inexperience helps them. 

“To have a go, when you’re younger and were playing with your friends you weren’t that worried about what you did wrong or you did right — you just played and enjoyed it. And that’s what the younger boys are doing just now.”

Doyle’s team-mate and recent key man Ross Forbes will miss the Dons game, despite having been an ever-present since he joined from Dunfermline Athletic two seasons ago. 

The midfielder will sit out the semi-final after picking up a suspension in the last round against Dundee United in the dying embers of the game. But Doyle insists whoever comes in to replace Forbes shouldn’t try and act as a direct replacement for the Ton playmaker — because it would be extremely difficult.

He continued: “Forbesy is going to be a massive miss because he creates a lot. The manager is going to obviously have to speak to someone about coming in, in his place, and say ‘you don’t have to do what Forbesy does, just try and do something a bit different that we’ve not seen’.

“The gaffer describes his left foot as a wand, and it is. But we have to adapt and show we’re not a one man squad.”

Another team-mate of Doyle’s in the limelight at the moment is 19-year-old attacker Jai Quitongo, and the defender believes the ex-Aberdeen kid isn’t fazed by the hype surrounding him. 

And Doyle insists Quitongo will naturally feel that he has a point to prove against the team that didn’t offer him a new contract when his original deal ran out.

He said: “Jai is a very confident young lad and you can’t take that confidence away from him because he’s been fantastic so far. He thrives off that.

“But we’ve got boys in the changing room that can bring him back down to earth, which is good.

“The boys have kept him grounded and we can have a laugh in there, too.

“The fact that Jai has been at Aberdeen and they never seen anything in him, you’ve got to thank Jim Duffy for giving him that chance and that belief.

“I think Jai might have something to prove, like plenty of us have had in the past.

“I was at Kilmarnock when I was younger and was told to go away and get first team football before I’d make it.

“We ended up going back there in the cup and beating Killie.

“Gary Oliver at Queen of the South I don’t think got much game time, whereas he came back with Morton a year later and proved he was one of the best players on the park.

“So Jai was at a couple of clubs coming up and a lot of them didn’t see a lot of potential in him, but he’s grounded and he’ll just have to keep working hard and he’ll want to play well against Aberdeen to show that he’s doing well.”