GARY Harkins admits he’s more than happy to continue taking the penalties at Morton unless manager Jim Duffy says otherwise.
Harkins had his spot-kick attempt saved by Falkirk goalkeeper Robbie Thomson in last Saturday’s 3-0 victory over the Bairns before he tapped in the rebound to open the scoring.
Duffy said after the game that he would ‘have a think about it’ when asked if the 32-year-old would remain on the penalties after his miss.
But the ex-Dundee man insists he’ll remain the taker as long as his manager and team-mates have the confidence in him to do so.
He told the Tele: “I was a bit lucky with the goal after the penalty miss but I’ll take it.
“It was my first goal from open play for Morton since I signed! Will I still be on the penalties after missing one? I actually hadn’t thought about it.
“I think the boys are still quite happy with me taking them, so I’m quite happy to continue doing so.
“At all levels I think people are going to miss penalties at times, I’ve said before you pick your side and if it’s a good penalty it will go in.”
Harkins played a starring role in the Ton win — netting one and assisting another in the rout — and he reckons the Greenock side made comfortable work of the struggling Bairns.
He said: “Falkirk is a tough place for anyone to go even though they’re going through a tough time at the moment.
“There won’t be many teams who go there will have a comfortable Saturday afternoon the way we had last weekend, so we were pleased.
“They are a decent team and regardless of how they’re doing at the moment, they’ll always be looking to fight for promotion.
“We can take some confidence going forward after such a good result.”
Team-mate Robert Thomson bagged himself a double and was praised by his manager at full-time. But Harkins was also singled out for his contribution.
A terrific run from inside his own half helped set up Thomson for his second of the afternoon and the playmaker said: “There was space there for me to run into and I did that. As I’ve looked up Thommo has been really clever with his movement and he’s held that side because it was open. I’ve passed it and it was a good finish from the big man.
“It was a good goal and I’m definitely always happy to get an assist and it was good for Thommo to get another goal.”
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