ANTON McElhone has challenged Aidan Nesbitt to cement his place in his first team after a stop-start campaign for the Morton livewire.

Nesbitt has struggled to nail down a starting berth, having started six games so far this season.

The Morton boss believes the 23-year-old is one of the best playmakers in the Championship and praised his recent performances against Alloa and Ayr United.

McElhone is confident he can fill the void left following Rangers loanee Josh McPake's recent departure.

He told the Tele: “Losing Josh McPake was a big blow for us, but me personally, I prefer to flip it into a positive.

“We’ve got one of the best number 10s in the league for me in Aidan.

“It was really tough on Nizzy because he’s been in and out of the team and we believe that we can play him in a number of positions to get the best out of him.

“For me it was tough when I took over as manager, the choice was to start one of Josh or Aidan and it was hard.

“At the end of the day, there was only one position to fill so I’d said to him, ‘we know what’s happening with Josh possibly going back up to Rangers, so it’s up to you to make the position yours now’.

“He’s played two games in a week and I thought he was fantastic in both games and can only get better.

“He’s a great team player, he works really hard and he can create things for the team.

“We’ve got a really top player and it’s up to us to really get the best out of him going into the second half of the season."

The Morton boss also hopes to see James Wallace make an impact in the first team.

The 20-year-old was brought to the club by former manager David Hopkin after being released by boyhood team Ross County in the summer.

Wallace has made only two appearances so far this season, but McElhone believes he can be an asset in the second half of the campaign.

The Ton manager said: “I think as much as one door shuts for someone another one opens for another.

“It’s a similar situation with Ross MacIver. We’re gutted that we weren’t able to keep him longer.

“It opens the door for someone else to come in and stake their claim for the team.

“All that the departures have done is tighten things up a wee bit and it gives an opportunity to younger players like James Wallace and people like that to go and see what they can do.

“James is still an unknown quantity, that we can use to our advantage going into the second half of the season.

“Obviously with Josh leaving and Nizzy coming into the ‘10’ role it’s his jersey to lose, but we know that James or Gary Oliver can also play in behind.

“He is a really technically gifted player, he can go in there with his back to players and work his magic but again it’s tough because we’ve got a really young squad as it is.

“You just need to look at the average age of the starting 11 at Alloa, it was 23 years of age.

“This is a really young team so it’s a tough one if you’re 20 like James, but if he keeps working hard and doing what he’s doing then I’m sure that the opportunities will present themselves to him.”