DEADLY Declan McManus has raised the bar after scoring five times in his first three matches for Morton.

Prior to Saturday’s 4-0 win over Stranraer, Aberdeen loanee McManus told the Tele he was aiming to score 10 goals in his time on loan with the Ton.

But after hitting a double against the Blues and following that up with an extra-time hat-trick against Berwick Rangers on Tuesday night, he was already halfway there.

As a result, the 20-year-old has reassessed his initial target and revealed he has now set his sights on reaching a total of 15.

McManus told the Tele: “I’ve come here and felt good straight away. I trained before the Ayr game and had a feeling I was going to have a good spell here. I didn’t think it was going to be this good so far! I couldn’t have imagined getting two against Stranraer, never mind following that up with three. I’m actually a bit shocked, to be honest.

“The target I’d originally set for myself in my time with Morton was 10 goals, but I’ll bump that up to 15 now.

“I’m not counting my chickens though. We’ve still got a lot of good teams to play against, but it’s gone brilliantly so hopefully I can reach 15.

“I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself or the boys to achieve it but it’s something to aim for.

“The most important thing is for the team to win. If I can keep playing well and keep scoring the goals to help us do that then I’ll be delighted.” Dons kid McManus hit an impressive, 12-minute treble on Tuesday night and says he always felt confident that Morton would make their full-time status count in extra-time.

He added: “We didn’t really get going in the second half and seemed to sit on our lead to try and see the game out.

“We shouldn’t have done that, but Berwick did well to force extra-time. On the balance of play, I’d probably say they deserved it.

“Going to extra time was dangerous for us because they were on the up at that point.

“But I’ve had a lot of full-time training and so have the rest of our boys, whereas Berwick are part-time.

“So I knew going into it that I would still be sharp and would get chances with legs tiring at the back for them.

“If they made a mistake I was going to be ready and, luckily enough, I capitalised.

“I was raging with myself all day Sunday for not getting the match ball, so I was delighted to make up for that against Berwick.

“I’d say I was the only person who was happy it went to extra-time afterwards; the rest of the boys were a bit tired.”