MORTON loan star Oisin McEntee believes Gavin Reilly's hard work has finally paid off after the striker's Highland heroics.

Reilly's first goal for the club ensured Ton will get a second crack against Inverness Caley Thistle next week and the Irish defender says it's the least the on loan Livingston hitman deserves.

McEntee feels the 29-year-old's goal was his just rewards for weeks of hard graft on the training ground.

He told the Tele: “We’re buzzing to have managed to get a replay after that on Saturday and we feel as if we deserved every bit of it, if I'm being honest.

“I’m delighted for Gav, because you could see it was really getting to him that he wasn’t hitting the back of the net.

“He’s been in training doing extra finishing and working his socks off.

“He’s deserved a goal for so long, he gets himself into good positions and he’s just been unlucky recently that it’s not quite happened for him.

“There were spells on the game where we were on top, kept the ball well and importantly we were creating chances.

“I feel like the goal that we did get, it felt good, but importantly we were due it after what we had put into the game."

McEntee hopes that the result in Inverness can give Morton a shot in the arm going into a crucial period in their Championship campaign.

He said: “Things might not have gone our way in recent weeks, so to have got that goal could be huge for us and we have all breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“We’ve shown glimpses of what we can do all season, but against a very good Inverness side, who are competing up the top end of the league, I feel that we have the players to compete against anyone.

“We just need to get our heads down and show just how we can play over the next couple of weeks and fix the position that we find ourselves in.”

McEntee relished the challenge of going up against Caley Thistle danger men Billy Mckay and Shane Sutherland at the Caledonian Stadium - and he believes that the experience will stand him in good stead.

He added: “Saturday was my type of game, I was loving it.

“It was the type of game that was a real battle, but we also wanted to get the ball down and play and that suited me really well against two of the best strikers in the league.

“It was really good to play against two strikers like that in Billy Mckay and Shane Sutherland and you can see why they’re two of the best in the division.

“They are very good, their movement is outstanding and I felt that Alan [Lithgow] and I did well to keep their opportunities to a minimum.”