MORTON skipper Jim McAlister has called on his teammates to produce a performance similar to 11 years ago at Easter Road in Saturday’s Betfred Cup last-16 showdown.

McAlister was part of the team that recorded a 4-3 win against a star-studded Hibs side thanks to goals from Iain Russell, Steven Masterton and Ryan Harding.

The midfield veteran insists the current Morton squad have similar capabilities and says they’ll use the 2008 League Cup shock as inspiration against Paul Heckingbottom’s outfit on Saturday.

He told the Tele: “It was an important reaction from the boys, obviously losing the game against Ayr in the way we did and then beating Alloa 4-1, it’s just the way this league is in a nutshell.”

“Saturday showed signs that everyone is bedding in and understanding what the manager is trying to get us to do.

“The way we went out second half showed that we have a good bit of character in the dressing room and scoring those three goals was the least that we deserved.

“Easter Road is the type of stadium you want to play at every week.

“I was speaking to someone about going to Easter Road round about this stage of the League Cup with Morton about 11 years ago now.

“We beat them 4-3 after extra-time and they had some big hitters like Steven Fletcher playing that night.

“Although it was a long time ago, we just need to think of that to remember that we can cause an upset.”

The midfielder is hoping that he and his teammates can go and enjoy themselves after picking up their first three points of the season in Saturday’s 4-1 demolition of Alloa Athletic.

He said: “We haven’t really spoken about the cup tie because obviously the Alloa game was the biggest priority.

“But now after the Alloa result we can just go and enjoy this week’s training and it sets us up nicely to go to a Premier League ground and hopefully cause an upset.

“Obviously it was good to see how they fared on Sunday against Rangers and we saw how they played in the first half. 

“Although Rangers played with a ridiculous intensity, Hibs still have some very good players that can cause us problems.”

McAlister is hoping that the Ton can use the ‘underdog’ label to their advantage.

He added: “The manager will no doubt have a game plan set out for us.

“Their result against Rangers on Sunday could go one of two ways for us, that’s just how football is. 

“The new manager, Paul Heckingbottom, has come in there and done very well, getting some good results.

“All the pressure is on them because they’ll be expected to turn up and take a few goals off of us, so hopefully we can go there and enjoy the underdogs tag and relax and play with a freedom.”