ANOTHER of Morton’s promising youngsters has been farmed out to Port Glasgow Juniors for the rest of the season.

Centre-half Luke Irvine follows in the footsteps of right-back Craig Knight, who joined the Port two weeks ago.

Irvine trained with the Port squad on Monday night and could make his debut against Vale of Leven at Parklea tomorrow.

Like his team-mate Knight, Irvine will also retain his involvement with Morton’s youth development squad, for whom he featured in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Queen’s Park at Lesser Hampden.

It’s a timely move for the Port, with regular centre-half Graeme McClement, inset, likely to be out for a further three weeks at least, after he hobbled off in the team’s recent 4-2 defeat at St Roch’s with what has now been revealed as ligament damage.

The season may be nearing its end, but the Port still have plenty of incentive to go all out for three points tomorrow.

With Rossvale crowned league champions last week with a 4-2 win over Vale of Leven, there remain two promotion places up for grabs, and the Port are still in with a chance, despite a horrendous run which has seen them lose six out of their last eight matches.

But manager Craig Brown knows that his men can’t afford any more slip-ups.

He admitted: “We still have an outside chance, but would have to win all of our remaining five games, and even then might need other results to go our way.

“But matches against Vale of Leven are always tough, and by all accounts they were unlucky to lose at Rossvale last week.’’ However, the Port go into the game with the knowledge that they have a 100 per cent against the Vale this season.

A 3-1 win in Alexandria in the season-opening Sectional League Cup was followed by a 1-0 victory, also at Millburn Park, when they met again in the league last October, with a 14th-minute goal from Scott Nugent sealing the win.

And the Vale come to Parklea on the back of a dismal run similar to that of the Port, with just one win in their last seven matches, with last week’s reversal at Rossvale ruling them out of the promotion chase.

Port striker Steven McAfee is unavailable tomorrow, but fellow front-man Dylan McLaughlin, who had to pull out during the warm-up at St Roch’s a fortnight ago, has resumed training this week and looks set to return in a bid to help the Port to the three points needed to keep their season alive.

Kick-off at Parklea is at 2pm.

Port Glasgow Juniors are sponsored by Regents Vehicle Sales, Greenock, and MAC HSL Ltd. Tomorrow’s match is sponsored by Councillor David Wilson.