MORTON midfielder Andy Murdoch reckons Morton are more than worthy of their impressive Championship position — and says they have earned the right to be considered one of the teams to beat this season.

Ton sit third in the table, two points behind closest rivals Falkirk with a game in hand over the Bairns.

The Greenock men have been outstanding this season, showing consistency and the ability to keep themselves in the hunt with so-called favourites Dundee United and Falkirk from the beginning of the campaign.

And while the previous three matches have brought just one point for Morton, the ex-Rangers ace believes his side deserve the recognition they’ve received so far, and it shows how far they’ve come.

He told the Tele: “Every game is really important now, we need to do what we were doing before the last two or three games when we were winning games. Time to get back to that.

“Everyone has been praising the whole team and I don’t know if everyone is used to it. It’s a different kind of pressure.

"I think we are one of the scalps this season. People want to say that it’s a really good result if you beat Morton, it’s a good point if you draw with us. So I’d say this season anyway, we’ve become a bit of a scalp for other teams to try and take.

“And it’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing because you’re getting recognition for what you’ve been doing the full season. We just now need to deal with that.

“We’re aiming to finish the season as well as we can, to play like we’ve been playing. The results definitely haven’t been what we’ve wanted in the last three games but we just need to keep at it and it’ll come.”

Murdoch feels Ton were unfortunate to walk away from the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium last weekend empty handed, especially after Lawrence Shankland had a goal chalked off and they hit the woodwork three times.

But he admits it’s now time to up the ante and be ready for this weekend’s visit of league leaders Hibernian.

He said: “We were just unlucky last weekend against Dumbarton, even if we probably deserved something from it, especially in the second half. We’ve had a few shots, hit the post a few times, the bar and had a goal disallowed.

“They were both pushing each other for the ball and I thought Shanks just managed to edge in front of the boy and get his head on it.

“The referee’s thought differently so there’s nothing we can do about it. The referee isn’t going to change his mind.
“We’ll now need to be ready for this Saturday and hope to get something from that.”