MORTON go into an important home match tomorrow afternoon under a wee bit of pressure owing to recent results.

With two contrasting cup defeats bookending a very disappointing show at Forfar in the league, they’ll be understandably keen to avoid four consecutive losses, and get things back on track.

Airdrie will be the visitors to Cappielow and given the fact that they are without a victory to their name and sit rock bottom of the table, the not-unreasonable expectation is that Morton should be collecting three points from this one.

They are, after all, a full-time team who have started the season with ambitions of mounting a promotion challenge while their opponents have evidently been up against it thus far.

But it’s not been plain sailing for their hosts either, who have had an up-and-down time of it at the beginning of what promises to be a long, tough campaign.

With two wins and two defeats in the league, Morton will be keen to get back to winning ways and start to show the sort of consistency which will eventually mark out the contenders from the pretenders.

That will not be a straightforward task, for two main reasons.

The first is that the squad Jim Duffy has assembled is largely a new one, and a bedding-in period is therefore inevitable, though we are a couple of months on and we should be coming to the end of it around now.

The second is that when you look around the league, there does not appear to be too much between the sides, with not too many standout players and the emphasis largely on physical battles, being organised and working hard.

It’s also the case that Morton’s squad remains in need of strengthening if they are to mount an effective and sustained challenge.

Jim Duffy told the Telegraph this week that he would still like to add another striker while the need for an experienced midfielder to be brought in is, I and many others would argue, crystal clear.

But it seems that the manager will be lucky to get more than one new arrival in through the door at Parklea if his comments this week are anything to go by.

Asked about possible transfer movement and referring to his striker search, Duffy said: “Other than that I think we’ll go with the squad we’ve got.

“You’ve got to balance the books.” It sounds from those remarks as if the budget is just about exhausted, and that may well necessitate changes at the turn of the year, maybe even before then, to free up room for new faces. Those players who are on short-term contracts could be forgiven for feeling somewhat uneasy about their position, as there is an imbalance to the squad at present and a shortage of people who have been around the block and have a bit of know-how.

This is undoubtedly contributing to the type of naivete at key moments which the manager has identified as being very costly.

Another problem causing a headache has been injuries to key players, with Andy Barrowman and Jamie McCluskey both enduring extended spells on the sidelines.

With Barrowman slowly edging his way back to fitness, he should soon be able to come back in and hopefully bring the sort of physical presence the team needs at the top of the pitch.

Thomas O’Ware has done an admirable job of filling in but it was never going to be anything other than a stop-gap temporary fix — he is a defender first and foremost and has much more to offer in that type of position than being used as a makeshift striker.

One player who is already back from injury is midfielder Reece Hands who was in the limelight as he passed up a series of big chances in last week’s Petrofac Cup quarter-final loss at home to Alloa.

The former Blackburn colt had a terrific start to his spell at Cappielow last year before injury and an understandable loss of confidence set him back.

If only he could recapture the sort of performances he was putting in 12 months ago then he’d surely be a big asset to the team and could add the midfield goal threat that most good sides tend to have.

This is of course a quality which Duffy also hopes that on-loan Ranger Robbie Crawford will be able to provide too.

The Gourockian made his debut for his local club last Saturday and his stamina, energy levels and good technical ability should shine through at this level.

He did not have the opportunity to be able to get forward to link with fellow-loanee Declan McManus last Saturday, with the striker unavailable for selection.

Both men will be able to feature tomorrow now that McManus is back from international duty with Scotland’s under-21 side, and if Crawford and his fellow midfielders can provide him with the right service then he is likely to get back amongst the goals quickly.

Although Morton will not want to become overly-reliant on the young Aberdeen player, it’s already clear that he is capable of making a telling difference to their fortunes.

His return could even be the decisive factor in tomorrow’s proceedings.

TEAM LATEST JIM Duffy hopes to have a full complement of players to choose from for tomorrow’s match against Airdrie.

Up front, Declan McManus is available again after returning from international duty while Andy Barrowman is in contention for a start having come through a Development League West match unscathed on Monday.

Jamie McCluskey returned to training on Tuesday and will be assessed today and tomorrow, although a place on the bench might be the most likely scenario.

There are doubts over Stefan Milojevic (knee), Michael Miller, (adductor) and Ricki Lamie (foot and back) but the Ton boss is optimistic they will be available.