MORTON’S head of development John Sutton admits they wanted to finish higher in the Reserves League last season — but says the experience will stand them in good stead for the future.

The Ton finished 16th in the 18-team division, which was made up of Premiership and Championship second-string sides.

They managed to pull off some big wins, in particular a 3-1 victory over Celtic.

With more senior players allowed to play in the newly-created Reserve League, it meant some sides were able to use a number of first team members.

One such fixture that was evident for Morton last year was the 5-0 defeat against Hearts, where over half of the Jambos’ starting 11 were first-team regulars.

Sutton admits it was a big learning curve for his troops after playing in the West Development Leagues for the last few campaigns, but he believes the experience will help in their development.

He told the Tele: “The Hearts one was a good case in point.

“They were really strong and that was almost an SPL line-up.

“We had Strappy [Lewis Strapp] playing at centre-back, who was fantastic, we had Ben Docherty, who was at school playing centre-back, and despite the scoreline, did very well.

“We had the likes of Johnny Gallagher at left-back who was still at school.

“It was disappointing in terms of every game you want to win, but in terms of the boys learning and their development it was brilliant.”