LOYAL Morton skipper Lee Kilday has revealed he rejected a return to Premiership Hamilton Accies to stay at Cappielow.

Defender Kilday penned a two-year contract extension with the Ton inside the Falkirk Stadium immediately following the 1-0 loss to the Bairns in the final game of the 2015-16 campaign.

In doing so, the 24-year-old snubbed a two-year deal with top-flight Hamilton – the club with whom he spent seven years between the ages of 15 and 22 before his release in 2014.

Speaking exclusively to the Tele, Kilday said: “I signed a two-year contract right after the Falkirk game and I’m happy to be staying. Hamilton also offered me a two-year deal but I turned that down because I felt it was the right choice to stay at Morton.

“It was a wee bit surprising Hamilton came in for me after letting me go a couple of years ago, but I had known there was interest during the season. It wasn’t an easy decision. I came through the youth system at Hamilton. They are a great club and obviously play in the Premiership.

"They came to me with a month to go in the season and gave me time to think about it and Morton obviously offered me as well. So I had the choice and I picked to stay at Morton.

"It felt like the right decision at this stage in my career - I play here every week, I’m the captain, and I love working under the gaffer.

“The gaffer has been brilliant with me, and him and Hagi [McPherson] staying were a big reason why I signed again.

“I love it at Morton. The boys are great, the gaffer’s great, Hagi’s great, all the coaching staff are great – everybody enjoys it here.”

Kilday made 41 starts and one sub appearance last term – second only to loan striker Denny Johnstone – as the club clinched a creditable fifth-placed finish on their return to the Championship.

And the ambitious centre-half admitted another reason for tying himself to the Ton was his belief the team could push for a play-off place in the upcoming campaign.

He explained: “I think this season we’ll be looking to try and push on, to go one better than what we did last season.

“Finishing fifth was a great finish in a hard league, and we’ll need to see how the season goes, but I think our ambition, with the players we’ve got, will be to push for that play-off spot next year.

“I’m already looking forward to getting started now. It will be a good league, a hard league – and maybe harder than last year. Rangers are promoted but Dundee United are in it, Hibs and Falkirk are still in it, you’ve got Ayr and Dunfermline coming up and those two are big clubs.

“So I think it will be a tighter division next season. Maybe Hibs and Falkirk will be up there but it could be anybody’s.”