MORTON’S Chris Millar has been hailed as a model professional for the younger players at the club by manager Jonatan Johansson.

The experienced midfielder came off the bench against Falkirk at the weekend to earn his 250th appearance in a Ton shirt.

The 36-year-old returned to Cappielow this summer after previously spending five seasons at the club from 2003 to 2008 before moving to St Johnstone.

The ex-Saints man has been a mainstay in the team this season, making 34 appearances so far and scoring four times.

While Millar has had a big impact on the pitch for the Greenock side, the manager stressed how important he was off the park as well.

He told the Tele: “It’s a massive achievement for any player [to reach 250 appearances], and he’s been one of the players throughout the season you really rely on both on and off the pitch.

“I knew Chris from before at St Johnstone, I knew how good he is and how strong a character he is on the pitch and in the dressing room and you can always rely on him.

“He’s getting to a fair age for a football player but he’s still very fit, he gets the best scores in terms of GPS and ground covered during games and he’s a role model in that way for a lot of the younger players in the team.

“In the perfect world I wouldn’t have played him as much, that’s not a negative, it’s a positive because I would have liked to have kept him fresher.

“He’s had a very good season under difficult circumstances, especially, with the start of the season with the manager leaving.”