JOHN Sutton says he's worried Inverclyde has lost a generation of young footballers due to the Covid-19 pandemic as he returns to Morton as reserve team coach.

The 38-year-old had left Cappielow last summer during the height of the first lockdown as the club looked to make ends meet by scrapping the reserve team.

Now the former Motherwell and Hearts hitman wants to help the academy’s prospects make up for a year's worth of development missed as a result of the enforced shutdown.

Despite the difficult year, Sutton believes Morton's youngsters have a bright future ahead of them with a clear pathway to the first team under his former St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson.

He told the Tele: “I’m really happy to be back at the club. I was upset to have lost my job last year and hopefully I can pick up where I’ve left off.

“It’s great to be back and hopefully football can pick up for kids of all ages now. Whether it’s kids in a Sunday team or in the reserves squad here at Morton, it’s been very hard for them.

“It’s been very stop-start for the kids and a year out of a teenager’s development is actually really big in more ways than one and we were at risk of losing a lot of them.

“You’re looking at some really top end players potentially looking to go professional but then you’ve got to look at the social side of things and keeping them fit when you take them away from that environment.

“I can really feel for them, because you’ve had boys maybe playing under-18s last year who are following their dream of wanting to become footballers and to have it taken away from them in those circumstances must have really been horrible.

“Fortunately, though, we’ve got some boys in full-time which is good to see and, albeit in dubious circumstances against East Kilbride last week, it was great to see the young boys starting and doing very well.

"It’s clear to see that we’ve got some talent there.

“It was lovely to Lewis McGregor score an absolutely fantastic goal against Kilmarnock on Tuesday night as well and I’m really looking forward to helping bring some more boys like them through to the first team.

“Now everything is back to some sort of normality with games and training, hopefully myself and Derek Anderson can help push them on and we’ll see what happens from there.

“I’ve played under Gus and Andy [Millen] at St Mirren and I was part of a relatively young team there playing under them so that can only be a good thing for the younger boys who have had opportunities already.

“When they’ve been in, they’ve played quite well and the senior players have been really good with them as well.

“Now that things have hopefully settled down a bit, hopefully we can get them in and training a lot more which means that the future is bright for the club.”

Sutton was coaxed out of retirement by former manager David Hopkin during his first spell at the club in 2019.

But he insists there's no chance of him pulling on his boots again as his full focus is on the club’s youngsters.

He added: “There was a very small chance of me putting my boots back on the first time around but there’s absolutely no chance this time. I’m firmly a five-a-sides player now and even at that I’m playing in goals!

“My playing days are fully behind me and I’m just really looking forward to working with the boys again.

“I am just looking forward to working with Derek Anderson again because you just need to look at the results the youth teams have had in recent years punching well above their weight along with the youth cup run.

“The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between being a top end youth team player and becoming a first team player now."