MORTON midfielder Kyle Jacobs believes they can get off to a fast start after being paired with Alloa for the Championship curtain-raiser.

Jacobs was relatively happy with the fixtures after Ton were handed a home game to begin the 2020/21 campaign, which will kick off on October 17.

The Ton then hit the road to face Dundee the following week and will host Ayr United to complete October’s fixtures.

The festive season sees them entertain Inverness Caley Thistle to Cappielow on Boxing Day, before ending the year with a trip down the Clyde coast to take on Ayr United.

David Hopkin's men will first foot Alloa to bring in 2021.

Midfielder Jacobs told the Tele: “I think most people would say that we’ve got a relatively easy start in the shape of Alloa, but you never can be too certain on any team in this league because it’s so unpredictable.

“We had Alloa as our first home game last season too, so it’s pretty much a re-run of that.

"Hopefully we can get a similar result because we won 4-1 in the end.

"We want to get off to a good start and carry over the momentum from the end of last season, especially in a shortened league because we won't have games to play catch-up like last year - before you know it you could be left behind.

“It’s important that we don’t let that happen because there’s a good chance for us to achieve something this year.

“It will be tough, I think every game will be – especially with the restraints of Covid, but I’m looking forward to the new season."

Jacobs admits he was looking out for Hearts on the list and the title favourites will come to Cappielow twice, on December 5 and again towards the end of the season.

The December meeting will be the first time the two clubs have met since 1988.

Jacobs said: “We’ve got some good fixtures, I’d had a wee look to see what was happening and it was really pleasing to have Hearts at home twice as well.

“With the way that they’ve been scheduled, playing teams three times instead of four, we can hopefully have that home advantage against them, and at least have a percentage of fans in the stadium for it too, that would be great.

“Having some of the bigger teams at home twice, like Hearts and Inverness, will be good for us because we like to make Cappielow a hard place to come."

Jacobs says the release of the fixtures brought a psychological boost after a long spell away from football due to the lockdown.

He believes that there is now some light at the end of the tunnel after a turbulent few months for Scottish football.

The 29-year-old said: “I don’t think I've ever been so excited for fixtures to be released.

“It’s something that we know we’re working towards now - you start getting a feeling of when you’re going to be heading back to work and starting training.

“We’ve just been waiting for any sort of news because we didn’t know when we were coming back in.

"Hopefully we’ll be back in at the club soon and getting ready."