MORTON manager Jim Duffy was delighted with the debut performance of new signing Luca Gasparotto.

The 20-year-old defender joined Ton on loan from Rangers on 7 August and was an unused sub at home to Falkirk less than 24 hours later.

After getting a week of training with his new team-mates under his belt, Gasparotto was thrown in at the deep end with a start away at Hibs.

Gaffer Duffy, a centre-half in his playing days, was impressed by the Canadian’s confident display and took time to praise him and the rest of the Ton back four for their efforts in Edinburgh.

He told the Tele: “Obviously in the build-up to the Falkirk game, we had already worked on the defence right up until kick-off time really.

“So I wasn’t going to change it last week.

“But we had worked with Luca all week and felt he was ready to go and play and he showed he was with a terrific performance.

“I thought he was excellent. To be fair, I thought everyone did well — but I thought the back four in particular were excellent.

“Luca and Ricki [Lamie] were strong and really handled [Dominique] Malonga and [Martin] Boyle pretty well for most of the game. Those two are good players and for two young centre-backs to cope so well, I was delighted with them.”