JIM Duffy believes his side have a lighter festive schedule than previous seasons — but injury problems to their forward line may make things more difficult this weekend.

Ton will be without Jai Quitongo and Kudus Oyenuga for this afternoon’s visit of Queen of the South and may need to make do with moving Jamie McDonagh from right back to centre forward again, like they did last weekend against Hibernian.

Duffy says Ton don’t have their troubles to seek up front, which was an area they were short on numbers before the injuries to two key players.

He told the Tele: “The festive period has been not too bad in terms of games, because they’re falling on a Saturday. Normally you’d have a game on Boxing Day which might fall on a Tuesday and then there’s a Saturday again and so on. But certainly for us, having the games Saturday to Saturday is more beneficial.

“But we still have injuries, particularly at the top end of the pitch. Kudus will definitely be out, Jai will definitely be out. So from that position, it’s difficult for us because it’s one area of the pitch where we were quite light anyway.

"And with those two players out it definitely stretches us. Jamie [McDonagh] did well against Hibs last week, there’s no doubt about that. But it’s like everything else where if Jamie does play up there, we don’t have too many other options if it’s not going well or if we need to change it. Like anything in football, you need to have options.

“But it was a good performance last week and if we can get a similar performance from Queen of the South this week then we’ll be pleased.”

Queens are under new management since the last time the two sides collided. An incredible 5-0 win for Morton in Dumfries back in October signalled the beginning of the end for former boss Gavin Skelton.

But Duffy reckons new coach Gary Naysmith has helped steady the ship since he took over.

He said: “They’ve got a new manager in and their last two games have been 2-2 draws with Falkirk and Dunfermline. A draw away at Falkirk is a decent result for any team.

“They probably did hit a bit of a dip, but with the new manager coming in he’s changed things around and I think there’s a bit more belief back into the Queen of the South players.

“But my concern is how we play and with respect to everybody, if you’re anything at all off the pace then you’re going to be bang in trouble. We will try to approach the game with everything and hopefully that’ll be enough to get us the three points.”

As revealed by the Tele on Thursday, Ton striker Jon Scullion penned a new six-month contract, and his manager is delighted to have him signed up until the end of the season. He hopes the new deal might spur the 21-year-old on to make an impact over the remainder of the campaign.

He added: “Jon is a player who has been in and around the first team squad the whole time I’ve been here. I’ve spoken to him many times about what we feel he needs to improve upon, but the one thing that’s never been questioned is his natural ability.

“It would’ve been easy to try and move him on or tell him he can try and find alternative employment, but for me at this moment in time I still believe he’s got ability and talent, and players like that can sometimes be instrumental for the second half of the season.”