JIM Duffy says Morton used their free weekend for reflection following an ‘intense’ start to the Championship.

Ton have started the new league season ‘indifferently’, according to their boss, and the experienced Duffy revealed to the Tele that his players set about finding the key to consistency throughout their training sessions last week and this week.

The manager reckons this weekend’s clash with table-topping Dunfermline at Cappielow is the ideal time to improve on their form after some disappointing results in previous weeks — and added that his players are motivated for a difficult test.

He told the Tele: “Ideally we’d have preferred a league game last weekend but circumstances dictated otherwise, so we got to use the week to work on a few things.

“We’ll see if we can improve when we play the league leaders this weekend.

“It’ll be a very difficult match. 

“But that’s the nature of this division, I’ve said that from day one. 

“If you’re not quite at it and are even a fraction below the standard, you’d be fortunate to get anything from any game. 

“You need to be ready for the game and have every department playing at their best.

“I think it’s even more so like that this weekend because of the form Dunfermline are in. 

“But we’re aware of that, it should motivate the players to be at their best.”

He added: “What the week off does is that it allows the players to take a wee step back – you’ve got to remember, we’ve only played four league games. 

“If things are maybe not going your way it can get a wee bit intense and the players don’t get an opportunity perhaps to reflect on performances because the next game is up thick and fast.

“But what we did do was look at the first four games where we had a couple of good performances and a couple of indifferent performances. 

“We’ve got to try and get a level of consistency, but it’s not easy in this division.

“Dunfermline have started with that level of consistency that everyone else is hoping to achieve, but having those extra few days was about trying to get sharpness in our play.

“We’ve had patches where we’ve done okay but I feel we need to be a little bit more consistent. 

“Not just game-to-game but during games as well.”