MICHAEL Doyle is backing Morton’s new on-loan frontman John Baird to be a goal-grabber for Jim Duffy’s side.

Baird, 32, made his debut just over a week ago after he completed an emergency loan deal from Inverness Caley Thistle.

Striker Baird, though, had to sit out Saturday’s 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat to Celtic because he was cup tied, having played for John Robertson’s side earlier in the competition.

However, Baird should be back available for selection for this weekend’s trip to one of his former clubs — Falkirk.

And right-back Doyle is convinced the frontman can help Ton in their quest for a promotion play-off spot.

Doyle said: “Last season we didn’t have a lot of rotation up front and the manager’s obviously noticed that.

“But it shows what a good manager he is by bringing in Robert Thomson, Bob McHugh and Gary Harkins who can also play up front.

“There’s other guys there like Jai Quitongo and Gary Oliver, so that’s five great strikers at the club.

“But as the season’s went on, obviously injuries have meant a blow to some of them, but everybody knows how well John can play.

“He’s been a nuisance to play against, so it’s good to have him on our side. He brings that bit of experience too and boys like Gary and Jai can learn from him.

“He’s played at the top level so it can only be better for the squad.”

Ton get back to the bread and butter of their league campaign this weekend and Doyle reckons their recent seven-game unbeaten stretch in all competitions has forced other teams to sit up and take notice.

He said: “I think teams are now noticing how well we actually are playing.

“A lot of teams would have watched us against Celtic and we showed how hard we are to break down.

“I don’t think anyone is disheartened and one game’s not ruined us.

“If we keep playing well we’ll go on a run and I think we’ll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season, which was our plan at the start.”

Meanwhile, Ton manager Jim Duffy has applauded the travelling fans for the way they backed their team at Celtic Park on Saturday.

Duffy was caught up in so many media commitments at full time, he was unable to express his gratitude to the 1,400 or so who made the trip to Glasgow’s east end.

He told Tele Sport: “I really appreciated the Morton fans that were there. I have to say they were absolutely outstanding.

“There was a crowd of nearly 20,000 there and obviously nearly 99 per cent of them were Celtic fans, but you could hear the Morton fans throughout the game, from start to finish.

“And it was really appreciated by the players and they mentioned it after the game.

“They could actually hear the fans and that was really important, so we have to applaud the support.

“It’s easy enough to get drowned out at Celtic Park but for them to be as vocal and supportive as they were was outstanding — and it didn’t go unnoticed by myself and the players.”