Scotland Under-21 cap McManus nodded into the net from a yard in the final second of the 2-1 win over the Honest Men.

It was his first headed goal of the campaign, and manager Duffy is keen to see him add more poacher’s efforts to his repertoire.

The Ton boss told the Tele: “From Declan’s point of view, it was good to get that kind of penalty box sniffer’s goal.

“He doesn’t tend to score too many like that. It tends to be on the run or striking balls in from distance. If he can add four or five of the type of goal he scored against Ayr to his tally then he can become a really good goalscorer at the top level.

“He’s only 20 and he’s learning the game. He’s got things to improve on and that’s why he’s here at Morton.

“It’s why Derek McInnes has trusted us to try and improve his game and see if he’s good enough to go and play for Aberdeen.” McManus was deployed out wide on the left of midfield against the Honest Men, and Duffy felt it was an experiment that had merits and faults.

He added: “We moved him wide last week to see if we could utilise space coming in from the flanks. Some parts of it were good and some weren’t so good.

“But we started with four forwards really, with Jinky [Jamie McCluskey] on one side and Declan on the other. It was really positive and we played some good football.”