MORTON defender Brian McLean says he and his team-mates are determined to improve on last season's disappointing campaign.

The 36-year-old player-coach has his sights set on a much better season after it took the play-offs for Ton to ensure their Championship safety.

He believes that keeping a contingent of last year's player pool will help ensure plenty of motivation for climbing the table and ensuring no repeat of a nervous scrap for survival.

McLean told the Tele: “It was important to get as many boys from last season signed up as possible, as well as some new faces in early doors, so that they could get a feel for the place again.

“I think we’ll need to set ourselves targets before the season starts but there are a lot of players in the dressing room who will have the bit between their teeth after last season.

“Everybody wants to be up the right end of the table this time.

"We want to avoid a repeat of going to Arbroath away on the last day of the season looking to get something, or needing to rely on favours elsewhere like we did at the end of last season."

The ex-Motherwell man believes that the dressing room bonded during last year's successful survival mission and he is hopeful that will pay dividends in the months ahead.

He said: “The camaraderie in the dressing room helped us at times during the season, purely because we were such a tightly knit group.

“I think that’ll be a key aspect for us to carry over into the new season, to build on that and use it as a foundation to really go and kick on.

“From my own point of view, I feel I’ve still got a lot of games left in my legs and hopefully I can manage 35 plus again.

“But that’s up to me to prove that I’m still good enough to do that.

“If I want to be playing games then it’s up to me to put the work in, just the same for the other players in the squad."