MORTON midfielder Reece Lyon says he is ready to rise to the challenge after his spell out of the side.

Lyon missed nine weeks of action after the turn of the year, but returned to the side with a goal against Inverness after coming on as a second-half substitute. 

He believes that he has the mental strength that David Hopkin is looking for.

He told the Tele: “I feel as if I’m ready for whatever challenge the gaffer wants to put in front of me really because that’s what football is all about, challenges and ups and downs.

“I never really let it get me down when I was left out the side.

“It just motivated me to work that bit harder in training, I guess. I just got my head down and kept working hard.

“I’m showing him that I’ve got that mental strength that he’s looking for in his players and I think that that’s the biggest part of football.

“People think that football is the best job in the world, which it is, but sometimes they think that it’s easy, you’re in training for a few hours and then you’re away, but it’s really mentally tough sometimes.

“There are a lot more lows than there is highs so I’d say 70 per cent of the job is mental toughness.

“We’ve got great character in the dressing room, so I’m not surprised that we’ve responded in the way that we did to the Inverness defeat, with a late goal of our own on Saturday.

“We’ve had a couple of last-minute goals go against us this season, so it was nice to get one of our own.

“We weren’t playing our best football of the season, so to get a goal like that with virtually the last kick of the game made it that bit sweeter.

“It’s good to be getting back out on the park. I hadn’t featured in nine weeks and then I was able to come on and play against Inverness last week and then against Arbroath.

“To come back and score within ten minutes against Caley felt really good, then coming on at half-time on Saturday was a bit unexpected because it was quite early in the game. But it was good to get more minutes in my legs.

“I felt as if I did quite well, I got the ball on the deck and tried to keep the ball going as much as I could.”

Lyon believes that Morton can go into Saturday’s clash against league leaders Dundee United confident of securing all three points.

The playmaker hopes that home advantage will see them through the game as they look to go within a point of the promotion play-offs.

He said: “Dundee United haven’t had a great run in 2020 and the fact that the game is at Cappielow means that we’ll be confident.

“We feel as if we can beat anybody here and they really are there for the taking.”