LEWIS Strapp insists his loan stint at Elgin City has worked wonders for his development — and he wants to make an impact with the Morton first-team on his return to keep that momentum going.

Strapp re-joined his Ton team-mates full-time after being recalled by Jim Duffy at the beginning of January and the young left-back explained that he loved his time at Borough Briggs.

He played 12 times for the Black and Whites, scoring once against Edinburgh City and providing a handful of assists along the way. 

Now, back at Cappielow, the defender reckons he has to be ready to play to make sure his development doesn’t stagnate at a pivotal time in his fledgling career.

He told the Tele: “My loan is done now and I’m glad to be back. I enjoyed Elgin a lot, though, and I got to play for a good while before I got injured.

“The travelling was a bit of a nightmare but I was still training with Morton every day.

“I think after I started playing at Elgin it has shown me that I really want to try and play.

“Maybe before my loan I was still very young and I was happy enough being on the bench for games. 

“But now that I’m back I want to be playing because it will be difficult going from playing every week at Elgin to sitting on the sidelines. 

“I just turned 18 in November and I’ve got to go for it now. This is my chance.”

Strapp was pleased to be brought back to Greenock by gaffer Duffy after revealing that Elgin boss Gavin Price wanted to keep him at City for the remainder of the season.

But after hearing that his parent club manager wanted to keep him at Morton to compete for a place in the first-team, Strapp was more than happy to take on the challenge head on.

He said: “The manager [Duffy] has told me that he wants me back and to try my best to get into the team. Just to see how I get on. 

“If he had turned round to me and said ‘okay Lewis, you’re going back out on loan’ then it would be more devastating to think ‘is he just putting me to the side?’

“But obviously telling me he wants me back is great. 

“Elgin wanted me to stay on loan and the gaffer said no, so I could have stayed there. But it makes me feel good about the belief he has in me that he wants me back at the club to try and challenge Mark Russell and get myself into the team.”