ALLAN McGraw believes Morton have made a great appointment in new manager David Hopkin — but has stressed he will need time to get the best out of the club.

The Morton legend managed Hopkin when he first broke into the team as a youngster in 1989, before the midfielder was eventually sold to Chelsea for around £350,000 three years later.

The 79-year-old insists that knowing the area and club inside out will be a huge benefit for the Greenock-born boss, especially working with a tighter budget this season.

With many of last season’s players leaving, the Morton manager is working on rebuilding.

The ex-Livingston manager signed a three-year deal with the club, and McGraw insists the board and fans need to be patient and not expect wonders in his first season in charge at Cappielow.

He told the Tele: “He knows the club, he knows what makes it tick and he knows its downfalls.

“He’s not going in blind, he knows a lot about the club. He’s done a great job with others and I don’t have any doubt he’ll do well at Morton.

“It’s just help that he needs. There’s a lot of things you can do but unless you’ve got the players then there’s not much you can do – I think he’ll do very well though and it’s a great appointment.

“When somebody comes into a new club, it’s alright if you have plenty of money and you know you’re going to be able to do things.

“David will know while there might be some money available, there won’t be much and he’ll know he’s working on a shoestring. When you know that you work on it and he’ll be able to bring in some players. 

“David knows you need to be consistent, and they’ll need to give him time. 

“He doesn’t have a magic wand, he won’t go in and wave it around and everything will be hunky-dory. 

“I hope he gets the supporters and the directors on his side – as it’s important you get support from them, the supporters are the ones that matter the most.

“He can plan things — when some people are only given one year it’s asking a lot for them to turn it around within a season.”

McGraw was a regular at Cappielow last season, and says he found it ‘difficult’ to make his mind up about Jonatan Johansson’s Morton side. He says inconsistency was the downfall for the Finn, but thinks a raft of injuries towards the end of the campaign hampered his chances of greater success.

He added: “I watched them a lot last season and to be honest I couldn’t make up my mind about them. One week they were doing great, the next week they were poor.

“I don’t know Jonatan Johansson. 

“I know he had a lot of injuries but I think there was no consistency, and if you’re going to do anything in that league you need to be consistent.

“They never seemed to go on a run, it always seemed to be a good victory away and then a poor game at home. You can’t do that if you want to do anything.”