JIM Duffy admits hosting Morton must have been an enjoyable experience for opposition clubs so far this term — and says it is time they became a side their League One rivals dread coming to town.

The Cappielow club have lost four of their first five away games and face title favourites Dunfermline Athletic at East End Park tomorrow.

To date, Ton have leaked a total of 10 goals on their travels, which is one more than rock-bottom Stirling Albion and the worst record in the league alongside Stranraer.

With that in mind, manager Duffy says their focus must be on proving an altogether different proposition for home teams by adopting a more conservative approach on the road.

He told the Tele: “When we’ve played some of our away games we’ve been a bit too open, and I think we will have to be a wee bit more conservative.

“We’ll have to look at that aspect of the game and how we shape up. Not in a dramatic sense — we’re not going to play 4-5-1 and sit back — but we need to give ourselves a better balance.

“We’ve been a bit open and played with players who all like to get on the ball. Over the last few weeks we’ve had Robbie [Crawford], Joe [McKee], Conor [Pepper] and Reece [Hands] in midfield.

“At full-back we’ve played very attacking players in Lee Kilday and Mark Russell. If you think about it, there have only really been two proper defenders there: the centre-backs.

“Everyone else likes to get on the ball and play, so we’ve gone really quite attacking all the time.

“And sometimes you can have too many of those types of player on the pitch.

“Being quite open away from home has allowed the opposition to enjoy their football against us, and I don’t want other teams to enjoy their football against us.

“I want them to think, ‘Oh, this is a real tough match.’ And I just think we’ve given teams a bit too much time and space.

“We want to try and change that round and be hard to beat.

“We’ve got to be better defensively, for one thing. There’s no doubt about. I mean we lost three goals up and Forfar and then three goals up at Brechin.

“We’ve got to be better than that. We scored two goals at Forfar and if you are managing to do that away from home you want to be taking something from the game.

“So we can’t be giving the opposition time and space to be scoring goals against us.

“We’ve got be a bit more resilient and determined to keep things a bit tighter. And to be a bit savvier.

“In terms of the team selection, it’s sometimes been the case that we didn’t have too many options.

“Sometimes the team more or less picked itself because those were the players we had available. But if we’ve got one or two other options available for tomorrow’s match then we’ll see if we can utilise them.

“We want to make sure we’re really competitive against Dunfermline, to make sure they work for anything they get and then see if we have the composure and decision making to go and win the game.” Morton journey through to Fife tomorrow to take on the title favourites on their own patch for the first time this term.

Duffy is not one for looking backwards but reckons the outcome of last month’s meeting at Cappielow will have given his side an optimistic outlook.

He added: “Dunfermline are very strong at home.

“They’ve been solid defensively and that gives you a real platform to go and win games.

“We’re fully aware they’ve been on an excellent run and it was only a penalty save from Rab Douglas that prevented them from making it four wins on the bounce.

“They’re in good form and we’re not in such good form, but these are the type of games that can change it back round again.

“It’s a month down the line since we last played Dunfermline and things have changed in that month.

“They have gone on that really good run since then and we haven’t.

“I do think that match can give our players a bit of belief that they are as good as anybody in the league. It can give the fans a bit of belief that there is a bit of potential there.

“But you’ve got to back that up. It’s not about talking about it, it’s about proving it. You’ve got to go and prove it – and our aim is to try and get three points at Dunfermline tomorrow.”