JIM Duffy applauded his miserly defence for the shutout that provided Morton with a platform to go and pick up their first three points of the season away at basement boys Alloa on Saturday.

The Cappielow club recorded a narrow 1-0 win over the Wasps thanks to a superb 72nd-minute header from Thomas O’Ware.

They could well have won by a larger margin had they taken a handful of excellent chances, though, and Duffy identified the need to be more ruthless in front of goal going forward.

But a third consecutive clean sheet guaranteed that O’Ware’s effort was enough to secure victory, and the Ton boss was proud of the way his team kept the back door shut as well as their overall application.

He said: “Every game in this division is extremely tough, and any points you pick up you have to earn by giving everything in the game.

“The fans ask for commitment and they got it in abundance. They’ve got to be pleased with the effort and the desire to play for the jersey.

“These players always give a shift and a half, and I think we did that again today on the back of a terrific cup result down at Queen of the South in midweek.

“And of course if you play two [consecutive] games on an artificial surface it definitely takes a toll on the legs of the players, so I was delighted with their general play and their fitness.

“I think we deserved to win the match and we’re pleased to have kept three clean sheets in a row. If we’re not scoring a lot of goals, we have to make sure we are tight at the back.

“And I thought again Granty [Adam] only had maybe one reasonable save to make and that overall we protected him really well and we got a good line so we didn’t allow too much space behind us.

“That part of the team was very well organised today and I felt all of the back four played really, really well and gave us a platform so that if a chance came along we could take it.

“We’ve been creating chances every game and we haven’t been taking them. It’s obviously great that we are creating chances, but we have to take a higher percentage of them.

“If we don’t there will be that one time when we might get a bit of misfortune and make a mistake and the opposition will capitalise.

“I thought we created an awful lot of chances with good play but sometimes it just takes a lump into the box and a header to win the match.

“That’s football for you. It doesn’t have to be the prettiest as long as it’s effective and it was the one time we probably did that to good effect.

“I’m delighted for Thomas. He’s been out injured for a number of weeks and only came back recently, and he’s showed his ability in the air to win us the three points today.” Duffy decided to start with O’Ware in central midfield beside Michael Miller, with Ross Forbes playing narrow on the left.

When asked by the Tele about the tactical change, he explained: “Romario [Sabajo] played his first match for us on Tuesday, and I think he ran out of steam towards the end.

“He hasn’t played a lot of football, so I just wanted to change things round. I felt that Denny and Stefan had been a real good combination, so I didn’t want to change that.

“And I just felt that Tam could give us that aerial presence, that aerial threat, and that he could be a more offensive midfielder for us today.

“Normally he’s a more defensive midfielder, but we wanted him getting in the box, getting on the end of things – the old cliché of third-man running and coming late into the box from midfield.

“It didn’t work great but it gave us a bit of security in the middle of the pitch and also allowed Ross to get a wee bit further forward.”