JIM Duffy admits that Morton’s recent dip in form has been at the forefront of people’s minds recently — but he is hopeful that his team get the adulation they deserve this weekend for their incredible campaign.

Ton are without a win in their last eight domestic fixtures, yet they remain in a play-off spot which they guaranteed a fortnight ago against Ayr United at Cappielow.

Duffy reckons his players deserve huge praise for seeing out their in-house ambitions this year because his squad have put in a mammoth effort to get to where they are now.

He told the Tele: “Unfortunately in the world of football you’re always judged by recent form rather than perhaps your full body of work. But that’s just the nature of the game and we understand that.

“People tend to highlight things that are more negative than positive but I don’t really go down the route of, when we’re winning games, ‘well we’ve won this many games or scored this many goals’ but when you don’t win games people like to highlight that you’ve not done this or that.

“That’s just the way it is so for us, if you’ve got something to aim for and you manage to achieve it, we have the opportunity and possibility of promotion to the Premiership and that’s what we had to do. 

“Whether that amount of points was tallied up in the first quarter or the last quarter isn’t really relevant. It’s about how you get there and what you’re trying to do.

“I’m delighted that we’ve managed to get there but we understand that our form dipped in April. That’s over now, hopefully we can take the hit and move on.”

Morton could potentially play rivals Dundee United three times in the space of a week but Duffy isn’t worried about that prospect.

Ton have already played the Arabs four times this campaign and held their own each and every time.

Duffy insists the play-offs will be about who shows up on the day and he’s hopeful that his men can close out the league with a victory — even if he doesn’t think momentum going into the play-offs will have that much of a bearing on proceedings come Tuesday evening.

He added: “The play-off games make no difference whether we’re playing Dundee United or Falkirk. 

“We’ve already played them — it’s not like we’re only playing them out of the blue.

“Every game has been very close, we’ve done well in most of the games, but even that won’t make any real difference when it comes to the play-offs, all we can do is play as well as we possibly can on the day.

“But of the official league season, it’s important to finish the last game in a positive light for the fans and the club.”

Duffy also hinted at the possibility of leaving out some key players for the Tangerines’ visit to Cappielow today, because he wants his star men to be fit and raring to go come Tuesday evening.

He said: “We left several key players out last week and I’ll be doing the same this week because we need to give ourselves an opportunity to really be ready to play in the play-offs. It doesn’t guarantee anything obviously but at least it gives us a chance if some players have maybe got a little bit of freshness.

“You’ve always got to look at the game in front of you and it’s not often you can look that far ahead, but last week and this week gives us the chance to perhaps look beyond and competition for places with young players. Also, we’ll give one or two players a breather, because they’ve played a lot of games.

"Then hopefully we’ll be ready for the game on Tuesday.

“Ultimately it was just about giving some players a rest, not just from the football side of it but clearing their heads as well. We gave them a couple of days off and told them not to come into training because it’s been a long, difficult campaign. Fitness levels won’t be a problem, sometimes it’s just a case of clearing your head and recharging the batteries.

“We’ll do it again this weekend so that’s the opportunity we have. Dundee United still have the chance to finish second and they’ll maybe go for it and play their strongest possible team. But I can’t second guess it, it’s not my job. My job is to make sure we’re ready for Tuesday.

“There, for us, has to be a bit of caution to make sure everyone is fit and ready for Tuesday because that’s the bigger picture.”