MORTON manager Jim Duffy was delighted to see Andy Barrowman score on his return to action on Saturday — but believes the striker offers his side much more than goals.

Barrowman put his seven week lay-off behind him by hitting Ton’s equaliser in their 2-1 win over Airdrie at the weekend.

It was the former Ross County and Dunfermline striker’s first competitive goal for the Cappielow club on what was his first league start.

Although Duffy hailed the quality of the 29-year-old’s finish, he also raved about the value of his overall contribution.

He told the Tele: “I thought Andy’s finish was terrific and his overall game was terrific too.

“He got us up the pitch, held it up, and even leading up to the second goal, he collected the ball, brought it in and transferred it to Joe [McKee] and we eventually scored.

“You need presence in certain areas of the pitch. If you don’t have someone who can compete up there, the ball will keep coming back at you. If you are a top, top team capable of playing the perfect game — to be able to play umpteen passes from the back to get to the striker — it doesn’t matter because you’re always playing it on the floor.

“But most teams now will press the game really high so that they stop that and force the goalkeeper to kick it long.

“It’s not easy if you’ve got to put it up the pitch and you don’t have someone with a real presence there to compete.

“A lot of people don’t see the work Andy does because he’s not running all over the place.

“He had good game intelligence on Saturday and that helped us; there’s no doubt about that.” With Barrowman and Stefan McCluskey both fit and Declan McManus back from international duty, Duffy was at full strength in the forward areas against the Diamonds. He said: “It was the first time this season that all three were available for selection in the same fixture, and that came as a huge boost to the Ton boss.

He added: “We are getting players back in the front areas. We’ve got options up there now, and that’s the first time we’ve had that since I’ve been here.

“At times we didn’t have any natural strikers available, and now we have pretty much a full complement.

“And that’s something that’s important because — and I’m stating the obvious — we need to score goals to win games.

“It also allows you to look at different systems, to change it and play different ways. You could play someone in the pocket, you could play 4-3-3, you could play with twin strikers.

“At least now we have those options. That’s a real positive for me. It helps when you have players who naturally play in positions as it’s not ideal to have to change and adapt.

“We had Declan back from international duty on Saturday, which was a bonus. Stefan [McCluskey] has been back for a couple of weeks now.

“Since we got Declan in, Stefan had played wide right and wide left, and that’s not really his natural position.

“He did a lot better when he played as a striker against Alloa. He was a bit more like himself. And even though he was only on for five or six minutes on Saturday, he was great.

“When Stefan came on he chased and chased things and that allowed us to get up the pitch. Some people underestimate the value of going on at that stage of the game.

“They think they’re just going on to run down the clock — but he didn’t. He was really positive.

“He has a great attitude, and you need boys to have that. It was a great team effort on Saturday.” Duffy though, remains keen to add to his attacking arsenal by bringing in another frontman in the Barrowman mould in order to provide competition and cover in case of injury.

He said: “I’m still looking for a striker. We only have one targetman striker in Andy. As I said, you need a bit of presence up front.

“There are not many teams in the world who play without that kind of player.

“Most teams, even at the top level, play with a focal point in attack and look to play around him.

“So, it would be good to have another option in that area. We’re not in any desperate hurry, but I am still looking around and have spoken to one or two people. So we’ll wait and see.”