MORTON manager Gus MacPherson has today warned his players against taking East Fife lightly as they look to avoid another Scottish Cup shock at New Bayview.

Ton were humbled by the Fifers after being on the receiving end of a 2-1 defeat to the League One side two years ago.

MacPherson sees tomorrow's third round clash as a good chance to extend their run in the cup.

But he has stressed that they will need to treat Darren Young's men with the upmost respect if they are to have any chance of progressing further in the competition.

He told the Tele: “We’re all looking forward to the game, it’s something a bit different in being a cup game.

“It’s not a forgone conclusion that you go through to Methil and you’re guaranteed to win.

“If you want to go and win the game you need to go and earn your right to do that.

“If I said that it would be a shock if they progress, it would be very disrespectful to East Fife.

“You can't afford to look that far ahead either, all you can do is say that we’re playing East Fife and it won't be easy by any means.

“They’ve got a very good squad filled with players who’ve played at a higher level with the majority being within the Championship or higher.

“It’ll be a tough game and it’ll be one where we’ll need to give them the upmost respect to avoid any slip-ups.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for both teams, East Fife will be saying the same thing because they’ll believe that they’ll have just as good a chance of progressing as we do.

“It’ll be a tough game for us for sure but we’ve got to make sure that we’re competitive for the full 90 minutes to make sure that we’ve give ourselves the best chance of progressing.

“With the season as it is, we’ve got five league games left and for now just one cup tie to go.

“There’s not actually a lot left to play all things considered in what is a condensed season.

“You want to be competitive for as long as you possibly can and I think that in the time that myself and Andy Millen have been here, that’s been the case.

“We’ve lost two away games against play-off teams very very narrowly, we’ve always been competitive and Saturday will be no different in what will be a hotly-contested cup tie.

“I had the opportunity to watch them last night against Clyde, so we’ll be as well prepared as we possibly can.”

MacPherson admits that inheriting a large squad has been a headache since arriving at Cappielow.

However, with Morton facing a survival fight and potentially extending their run in the cup, he says that everyone could have a part to play.

He added: “I think we have everybody training at the moment which brings in a problem within itself.

“I’ve said it before, there are far too many players for a club of Morton’s size.

“To be carrying this many players is frustrating because senior players who are good players are missing out on selection.

“Players just want to play, it’s as simple as that, and they become frustrated when they aren’t out on the pitch.

“When I’ve explained it to the players that it’s not of our doing they’ve responded to that brilliantly and kept working really hard.

“There’s the potential for games to be really congested up until the end of the month and in a sense it will be good to have everybody available."