DENNY Johnstone hopes to play a part in Morton’s top of the table clash with Ross County on Saturday after making his return from a four-month injury lay-off this week.

The former Birmingham City striker made a scoring return to the Ton reserves, bagging a brace inside 45 minutes against their Falkirk counterparts on Monday.

It was his return to competitive action, four months after injuring his knee during a training session while on loan with St Johnstone.

The forward was offered a chance to stay on and complete his hat-trick by head of development squad John Sutton, but insists his focus was purely on returning to the first team fold and erred on the side of caution with his injury.

With Morton’s next game against Championship leaders County on Saturday, the striker is keen to play some part.

He told the Tele: “It was thoroughly enjoyable, I’ve waited for that day for a long time. It felt brilliant.
“It’s always nice to score and it settled me down a little bit, and it was good to get through it with no issues with my knee. I’m feeling good.

“I could have stayed on but you need to be on the cautious side of things when you’re returning from a serious injury, and it was probably the best thing in the end.

“I’d like to be involved in Saturday, whatever shape or form that comes in.”

The striker has been working hard behind the scenes to get fit, and mostly training on his own since rejoining the Ton this summer.

The 23-year-old travelled down to England to St George’s Park to use the English FA’s facilities to help speed up his rehab, a perk for every member of the English PFA.
The forward admits it’s been a tough time, especially watching on against Queen of the South in Morton’s Championship opener a few weeks ago, where they drew 2-2.

He added: “It’s been so difficult watching the games. The first league game was the hardest, just sitting watching in the stand not being able to make an impact.

“We were getting the ball out into the wide areas so many times against Queens and that’s perfect for me. I love attacking crosses from the wide area and hopefully that continues when I come back into the fold.

“I was down at St George’s Park a few weeks ago, because I’m a member of the PFA I get three weeks of the season where you can go down, use all of England’s facilities and it helped with my rehab.

“Almost all of my training so far has been by myself. I hadn’t been integrated into the squad until recently, but it’s nice being in the dressing room with the boys and getting settled back in. I know a few of them from my last time here and it was a pretty smooth transition back in.”

Meanwhile, Morton have appointed John Malcolm to the board of directors, with Malcolm taking up the role of stadium director.