CRAIG McGuffie hopes that his goal against Hearts has helped repay the faith shown in him by Morton gaffer Anton McElhone.

The 23-year-old winger nearly caused a shock when he put Ton ahead at Tynecastle with a 25-yard thunderbolt into the bottom right corner before substitute Jamie Walker levelled for the hosts.

McGuffie wants to continue to show why McElhone has shown the trust in him to give him a run of games after feeling frozen out by former manager David Hopkin.

He told the Tele: “I’m really happy that I’ve been able to get a chance and hopefully I’m repaying the faith that Anton has shown in me.

“He’s stuck by me even maybe when I’ve had one or two not-so-great performances and I’m just delighted that it’s paid off against Hearts.

“That's what I was crying out for, even when I was at Ayr, just give me a few starts in a row and to put a bit of trust in me and that’s what’s happened here.

“That’s four games I’ve had in a row now and when you look back to where I was near the end of Hoppy’s time at the club I wasn’t even getting in matchday squads.

“Anton has given me a chance and I’m grateful for that, I really am.

“I thought I did well against Hearts and I’m pleased to have capped off the performance with a goal."

McGuffie is confident goals will be easier to come by for Morton after finding the net against Robbie Neilson's side.

He said: “It says a lot about us as a team when we’re coming away from a place like Tynecastle and against the league leaders in Hearts feeling disappointed.

“I felt like the goal was coming, at the end of the first half we had a few chances where we caused them a bit of trouble.

“Obviously, they had a lot of possession and we were happy to sit and absorb that to then hit them on the break as and when we could.

“We were slightly disappointed, but we can only take the positives from the game.

“I think we’ve got goals in the team, but just like anyone, we’ve gone through a bad spell.

“A goal was always coming and now that it has, we can go into next week looking to get a few more.”

McGuffie believes that the result can prove to be a catalyst to push Ton on to the play-off places with only three points separating fourth and ninth.

He added: “The aim has got to be to try and reach the play-offs.

“If you can come to Tynecastle and play well like we have, then you need to be confident.

“If you look at the table, it’s exceptionally tight and there had been so much change purely because of the results at the weekend.

“Anyone can beat anyone in this league, as we all know, but we need to be positive and just take things a game at a time and see where things take us.”