MORTON midfielder Luca Colville is eyeing a flying start to the season to spark a Premiership promotion push.

The English playmaker believes that the Ton could be in with a chance of finishing in the play-off spots if they can maintain the form they showed in the second half of last season.

The 21-year-old says the Cappielow men must make the most of what will be a shortened season, with only 27 games to be played.

He told the Tele: “Hopefully we can start the season as brightly as possible and come out of the traps quickly.

“The aim for me is to get promoted - and I hope the team would say the same.

“I hope we can go on to have a really good season because that’s what we deserve after the end of the last season.

“The way we finished last season was fantastic, if we can play like that from the start then you never know what could happen, especially with there being less games to play.

“You could very quickly put yourself in a good position with a run of games like we had after Christmas.

"I think we became quite relentless towards the end, and with form like that you’re talking a title winning run.

“We would always find a way to fight back and we wouldn’t give up.

"We never knew when we were beaten and teams didn’t like playing us.

“You could see that confidence growing as the games went on.

"It was just frustrating the way things ended."

Colville revealed he is counting down the days until he can come back north of the border to continue his preparations for the new season.

He is under no illusion as to how tough pre-season training will be under Ton boss David Hopkin, but hopes it will stand him in good stead as the season goes on.

Colville told the Tele: “I have been going a bit stir-crazy in recent weeks, but I have been trying to keep myself in as much of a routine as I can.

“I’m sure that pre-season is going to be tough, but I think we’re all going to come out of it flying hopefully.

“We’re not only going to be physically ready but it’s mentally tough as well - you can go through some dark places during a pre-season but you’ve just got to get through it because you know that you’ll reap the rewards later.

“I just hope I can contribute as many goals and assists as possible.

"I’ve had a year to get used to the league so it’s all about what I can do on the park now.”