DEREK Gaston was Morton’s hero on Tuesday night as he helped them towards a bonus point by saving two spot-kicks in the Betfred Cup shootout — but admits he almost psyched himself out when up against former team-mate Thomas Orr.

Ton drew 2-2 with League One outfit Queen’s Park before Gaston saved two penalties in the shootout to bag the bonus point in the group stages of the cup.

But it was the save from Orr’s penalty that Gaston was most pleased with, because he was at risk of overthinking it.

In the end, Orr placed his effort exactly where Gaston expected him to, and Ton went on to win 4-2 in the shootout to earn two points after late goals from Bob McHugh and Darren Barr clawed back a 2-0 deficit.

Gaston told the Tele: “Penalty kicks are always a possibility with this format, there’s always a chance that at least one of the games in the group will end in a draw. I wouldn’t say I planned for penalties. 

“Thomas Orr was an ex-Morton player and I’ve seen him take penalties before, fortunately he put it where I thought he usually does.

“Sometimes that can be one of those ‘he knows that I know where he likes to put his penalties’, so will he change his mind? It’s almost like a double-bluff.

"Sometimes you can out-think yourself and change your mind, but thankfully he did put it where he usually does.

“We know he’s a good player, he’s hard working and we know he can take chances. It just didn’t quite work out for him last season on loan at Livingston, then his release, but he’s a handful and he caused our defence problems by scoring a good goal.”

Gaston added: “Tuesday was a bit of a strange game. At one point I thought to myself ‘how are we not out of sight and a couple of goals to the good?’, then all of a sudden we’re a couple of goals behind. Then you’re thinking ‘how did we manage to get two points out of that game?’, so it was strange.

“Queen’s Park got their tactics spot-on. As a team from a lower league you try and frustrate the opposition for as long as you can and try to stay in the match, then take your chances when they come around. We’ve been there before ourselves if we’ve gone to Parkhead or Ibrox.

"Their goalkeeper has played well as well and that’s what they needed.

“As the game went on at 0-0, we became a bit more frustrated, they got a wee lift and managed to take their chances. So we credit Queen’s Park for getting everything right.”

Morton square-off against Premiership opposition Motherwell in this afternoon’s clash and Gaston is hoping for a repeat of Ton’s 2015 heroics when they knocked out the Steelmen in the third round of the League Cup with a 3-2 win in extra-time.

He said: “Saturday will be tough against Motherwell. 

“But over the last two or three years we’ve tended to do well against the bigger teams. We’d like to do so again on Saturday.

“We beat Motherwell a few seasons ago, 3-2. We played really well, it was a really good game and we’ll be hoping for more of the same this weekend.”