MORTON captain Jim McAlister has urged his side to move on after a difficult period at the club.

Ray McKinnon shocked Scottish football 10 days ago when he left the Ton to join Championship rivals Falkirk.

But the club moved quickly to find a replacement, making the former Finnish national team and Rangers assistant Jonatan Johansson their new boss, just six days after McKinnon left.

After a hectic, week normality resumes for the Greenock side today when they return to training and the midfielder says they must get back to winning ways as soon as possible.

He told the Tele: “The boys put it onto the backburner pretty quickly, we had Monday off and we came in on Tuesday and trained as normal.

“What happened has not really been spoken about. Everyone is looking forward which I think is a good thing. Hopefully we can pick up the momentum we had coming off the Ross County game and take it into the game against Dundee United.

“There comes a point where you need to draw a line under it, it’s been done and a few players have said their piece and we move on.

“Especially now there’s a new manager in place, it’s extremely important that we all look forward instead of backwards.”

From a personal point of view McAlister found the last week tough, having to step up and lead training with the help of team-mates Chris Millar and Michael Tidser.

The trio helped organise training with no coaching staff around at the club.

McAlister admitted it was hard to juggle so many different tasks, while also trying to keep himself fit.

He added: “It was a good experience for myself, Midge and Tidser, who helped us out as well. It helps when the boys buy into what you’re doing. 

“We didn’t try and change too much, we just tried to train as normal.

“I don’t know how player/ managers do it. You are trying to concentrate on the session, but you’re also trying to train and keep yourself sharp, it’s not easy.

“It shows you how hard managers have to work in terms of planning and organising.

“Sometimes you’re better going in at the deep end, and you don’t have too much time to think about it.”

Morton also had a team-bonding afternoon on Friday, with the squad and staff at the club going go-karting.

McAlister led by example and picked up the gold medal, with new boss Johansson claiming silver and striker Bob McHugh coming third.

The captain said it was nice to have everyone involved in the day out at Hillington.

He said: “It was good to have team bonding after all that has gone on recently.

“All the staff were involved too and it was good to get off the training ground and do something different.

“Crawford Rae [Morton chairman], the new gaffer, everyone at the club was there and I thought that was a nice touch.”