LAWRENCE Shankland was delighted to open his scoring account for Morton against Raith Rovers on Saturday — and hopes it’s the start of a glut of goals for his new club.

Shankland netted the second of two Ton goals in a strong 2-0 victory over Rovers at the weekend, showing his ability to find space and take up good positions inside the opposition penalty area.

The 21-year-old is adamant that with the accurate assistance from his team-mates on a regular basis, he’ll be able to make a habit of banging in the goals for the Greenock outfit.

He said: “I’m delighted to start things off here with a win, I thought the boys did well. It was good to get another nearly 90 minutes under my belt and getting the goal was a bonus.

“We are a tough team who can dig in when they need to, but can play some football as well. It’s good to come into a team like that. Obviously Mark Russell’s ball in for the goal shows that we’ve got a bit of quality and service at the end of it.

"So hopefully that can lead to more goals.”

Ton’s win keeps them sitting pretty in third place in the Ladbrokes Championship table, just five points behind Dundee United with a game in hand.

Given the tightness at the top, he also reckons Ton won’t get carried away and will always strive to take things one game at a time.

He continued: “If we win our game in hand over Dundee United there’s a challenge, but we’ll keep level headed and take it one game at a time. We’ve won [on Saturday] which takes us closer to them, but we’re not really looking at it, we’ll just look to win one game at a time and pick up as many points as we can.”

Shankland’s former side — Renfrewshire rivals St Mirren — could only muster a point away to Dunfermline Athletic, and remain rooted to the bottom of the table, seven points adrift of closest campaigners Ayr United.

And new Morton hitman Shankland admits he found his second loan spell in Paisley a difficult time — because the team weren’t creating enough chances.

He said: “It’s obviously not ended up where St Mirren wanted to be at the time, and for me it wasn’t great. It is, and was tough, but it’s good to get a break from that. Coming here and winning games is what you want to do as a footballer. I enjoyed it [on Saturday] and look forward to sitting in the house with a smile on my face.

“It has been frustrating not picking up the amount of goals that you’d want. But in general St Mirren weren’t scoring many and there weren’t many chances being created.

“You need to make sure you keep getting yourself into good positions and when the service comes like it did from Mark [Russell], I was there to score.”

Shankland revealed he is also revelling in being able to link up again with former Rangers boys’ club team-mate Gary Oliver. The pair played up front for Gers when they were 13 years old and he is excited about the prospect of renewing the partnership.

He added: “I played with Gary when we were younger — wee boys, about 13. We did alright then, so I’m looking forward to that partnership.

“It was at Rangers when we were young, he was there for long term and I was there for a year. But we linked up well then and [on Saturday] I felt we were getting there towards the end. 

“It’s hard coming in and trying to join up with new players who don’t really know the way you play. But hopefully I can get used to it quickly and see it happen.”