JIM Duffy hailed his ‘outstanding’ defenders for being the platform from which Ton built a solid 1-0 victory over Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park last night.

Skipper Lee Kilday headed home the only goal of the game and put in a terrific defensive display alongside Ricki Lamie at the heart of the Morton defence.

And his manager was thrilled after the game with a clean sheet — because he knew it was always going to be a battle against 
Raith.

He said: “It was a very difficult match with little goalmouth incident. In the first half Gats [Derek Gaston] had a fantastic save and that, in a tight game, was pivotal.

“The second half I think both teams cancelled each other out, but from our point of view we’re delighted with the clean sheet.

“If it had finished 0-0 I’d have been thrilled because it was a game that was a bit tactical. But a set-piece can sometimes be vital and thankfully [last night] it was our turn to win with a set-piece.

“Defensively I thought we were outstanding. We had to contest a lot of crosses and balls into the box so it was much more like us. The work ethic was outstanding and it’s a magnificent three points.

“It is a very tough place to come and Raith made it very difficult for us. They were very committed and changed their shape by going three at the back with wing-backs.

“So we had to compete with that and adjust quickly. Some parts of that were good and others we had to work on, but we had to get back to being organised and disciplined. And over the 90 minutes, we were.”

The buzz has been around this weekend’s big Scottish Cup clash with Rangers in the fifth round of the competition at Ibrox.

But Duffy believes his players went about their business professionally against Rovers, and that was imperative to avoid a second consecutive Ladbrokes Championship defeat.

He continued: “That’s why I was delighted, the players’ focus was 100 per cent.

“There was nobody that was distracted and it was all about emphasising to the players to go out and show the full concentration was on the Raith Rovers game.”

Asked if he’s happy to be back into third place after winning their game in hand, Duffy replied: “It gives us that points tally that gets us in there. 

“I won’t focus too much on that just now, but what it does is show the players have a bit of character to bounce back from a disappointing result at the weekend.

“We’ve had three difficult away games on the bounce, Sunday will be a fourth. We’ve had two victories out of these and that’s terrific.

“We threw a challenge down to the boys that came in, I said ‘give me food for thought’, and every single one of them did that, so I’m delighted.”

Celtic loanee Luke Donnelly made his debut for the Greenock men, and his new manager was pleased with what he saw from the 21-year-old. 

Duffy insists it was a baptism of fire for the youngster, but one that will stand him in good stead for the rest of the upcoming fixtures in the Championship.

He added: “It was a very, very tough game for Luke Donnelly to make his debut against three very strong defenders. 

“The good thing for Luke is that he’ll learn from that and understand how competitive and physical the Championship is. He had some nice moments, but he’s got a bit of work to do to get to the level where he has to go and step up the awareness. 

“But last night was a fantastic education for him and I’m sure over the coming weeks he’ll be a very important player for us.”