DELIGHTED Jim Duffy hailed his under-fire defence after they claimed their first clean sheet in eight weeks against Stirling Albion on Saturday.

The Morton boss had been particularly scathing in his criticism of the back four following their displays in recent defeats at Stenhousemuir and Brechin City.

In the build-up to the match against the Binos, Duffy had focused on the need for his defensive unit to tighten up and cut out the individual errors.

So it was no surprise that the former centre-half picked out his side’s third shutout of the season as a real plus point from the 2-0 victory.

And although he admitted the performance was far from vintage, the 55-year-old was also pleased with the professional manner in which his side picked up the three points.

He said: “It was good to bounce back and keep our first clean sheet in a good number of weeks. That was important.

“Tom O’Ware and Stefan [Milojevic] were much, much better today, and when Derek Gaston had saves to make, he made them, although he didn’t have any spectacular saves to make.

“It was a good, solid defensive display today and that’s something we’ve been lacking the last couple of weeks, so we’re delighted with the clean sheet.” He added: “It was a real tough match but we knew it would be. Stirling worked hard and made it extremely difficult.

“They get the ball forward to Lewis Coult and they’ve got a bit of pace when they turn you round. They’re also resolute at the back.

“I thought we played well in the first half and created a good number of chances. A lot of balls flashed across the six-yard box and we just couldn’t get a wee break.

“So I was delighted that Andy [Barrowman] got on the end of the chance he did. It was an instinctive striker’s goal, and we don’t score many of those.

“Second half, I felt the game was more even. They kept two up and one off and that made it a little bit more difficult and we just got a wee bit anxious at times.

“Thankfully, David [McNeil] came on and gambled on the ball and wrapped the points up for us with the second goal.

“It wasn’t a classic footballing performance, but it was a real roll your sleeves up, determined performance.

“The opposition made it difficult and we made it difficult for them. It was two teams contesting very well, but thankfully we just had a wee bit more in front of goal.

“Of course we would have liked a second goal earlier, and the one Stefan [McCluskey] hit was going in all the way but it was a fantastic clearance. That keeps Stirling in the game.

“It doesn’t matter what you think of the game, how much of the play you’ve got, at 1-0 it doesn’t matter as it just takes one moment, giving away a free-kick for example, to change the game.

“But we defended much better today. We didn’t make too many silly challenges; we certainly stood on our feet better and managed to get the second goal to give us the breathing space.

“We changed things today and I think that was important. After poor performance you can do two things: work on the training pitch or change personnel. We did both.

“It was also about the game today. We knew Stirling would be really difficult to break down, so we put Stefan McCluskey in that pocket to give us an extra player and draw somebody onto the ball.

“Sometimes it was effective, sometimes it wasn’t, but it was something I felt we had to try. It’s a different game next week so we’ll look at the team again before that one.”