JIM Duffy says new loan signing Lawrence Shankland will need time to adapt to Ton’s style of play — but he’s hoping for a goalscoring impact from the Aberdeen striker.

Shankland, who cancelled his St Mirren loan deal early to sign for Morton, joined up with his new team-mates at training on Thursday afternoon. 

Duffy reckons the 21-year-old can add a different dynamic to Morton’s front line — but he’s not putting too much pressure on the striker just yet.

He told the Tele: “It’s all part and parcel of what happens in football, you try and bring someone in who can add to the performance of the team.

"I think we’ve been playing pretty well the last few months, we’ve had to chop and change the side pretty much every week due to circumstances.

“But we’ve always managed to put on a performance, which gives us an opportunity to win games.

“What Lawrence can do is add to that. It’s not all about bringing him in and expecting him to add a different dimension, because I think that would be unfair. Hopefully he can add something different in terms of a goal threat in the final third.

“I’m guessing it’ll take him a bit of time to settle in because he hasn’t played a lot of regular football. 

“He’s got to get up to speed and his sharpness back, that’s important.

Hopefully he can find his feet quickly but we’re not putting too much weight on his shoulders.

“He’s played in and knows the Championship and I think that’s important.

He’s not coming to somewhere he’s not aware of. But if we can get the right service to him, he can capitalise on the chances — that’s the kind of player he is.

“He’s not the type of player who will run all over the pitch. He’ll play in the final third and that’s slightly different to what we’ve had before.

“We’ll both have to adapt a little bit and hopefully we can get the balance right and he can be a success for us.”

Gary Locke’s Raith Rovers visit Greenock this afternoon, and Duffy is adamant his boys are ready for another difficult Championship challenge.

And he insists he is giving no thought to Ton’s unbeaten home record.

He added: “We got a really good result last week against Dumbarton and we’re hoping to add to that this weekend against Raith Rovers.

“The home run is for other people to look at, really. For me it’s just Raith on Saturday. Another extremely tough fixture.

“I know they lost quite heavily ultimately to Falkirk last week but they were 1-0 up and the Falkirk keeper made a fabulous save to keep it from going 2-0. These sort of things can turn a game.

“Up until that game they had been drawing a lot and they’re certainly difficult to break down.”