GUS MacPherson believes Morton players showed their true character by coming from behind to beat Clyde in their final Premier Sports Cup group game.

A brace from Robbie Muirhead ensured that Ton go into Saturday's Championship opener against Dunfermline on a high after Ally Love put the Bully Wee ahead.

The Morton boss believes that his players needed the ‘sucker punch’ of going behind against the run of play to show just what they’re made of and he was delighted with their reaction to the second-half setback.

He told the Tele: “I think we’ve gone out and showed a fantastic reaction.

“We’ve gone a goal behind but I thought that we played very well in the first half where we were dominant, passed the ball about well but most importantly effective in possession.

“We created chances and were unlucky not to be ahead.

“Obviously, Clyde have gone and made changes and brought the big lad [Robert Jones] on up front and went a bit more direct which caused us one or two problems.

“We always wanted to see what we would be like when we went a goal behind, it’s never something that you want but it happens and you need to see how your team react to that and I’m glad to say that it was positive.

“It was a sucker punch to go behind like that, to be on top and then give away a cheap free-kick from our point of view.

“It’s allowed them to put the ball in the box and we should’ve done better from the first and second balls.

“But these things happen, it’s how you react to it that’s most important.

“Nobody likes conceding soft goals, but it’s how you react and we did just that.

“We obviously got an early goal in response to them going ahead and then what was pleasing was to go and get a second in the manner that we did.

“The build-up play was good, Lewis Strapp managed to get a good cross in and Robbie Muirhead was there at the back post to finish it off well, so it’s all very pleasing.”

The Ton boss was delighted with his players' efforts on and off the park last week to make up for the days lost in training due to the Covid-19 outbreak at the club.

MacPherson says he will decide today whether to put his players through their paces with another bounce game.

He added: “We still might look to get a friendly in on Tuesday, but we need to look and see what is available.

“The workload that we’ve had in the last week - with the two games and the training sessions – that’s not a normal week that we’ve had.

“Considering the workload that’s been put into them and to play in the fashion that they did was very good, so we might not take a game, but we just need to wait and see what happens and we’ll decide early on Monday."