ROSS Gourdie says returning to Morton as a director is beyond his wildest dreams.

The former Ton youth academy coach, who is based in San Diego, California, now has a boardroom role as part of the six-figure partnership with stadium sponsors Dalrada Technology UK which was agreed last month.

Gourdie jumped at the chance to be a part of the club and he believes the sponsorship deal - involving his father-in-law Brian Bonar - is the start of an exciting era at Cappielow.

He told the Tele: "It definitely wasn’t in my plans, it was totally out of the blue.

"The MCT directors approached my father-in-law, and then myself and Brian just got chatting.

"Brian knows that I am a massive football guy, so he and I got our heads together and we just got thinking of how we could maybe help the club because they needed a little boost, even a bit of positivity added to the club, money was tight at the time.

"I never thought I would ever be a Morton director.

"It is still a shock - everything has moved so fast, and all of a sudden I am involved in board meetings, via Zoom call.

"I didn’t see myself ever being in this position, but I am excited about it.

"It seems exciting times ahead at Morton, we have got a lot of plans in the pipeline, it is going to take time but the directors know what is needed."

Gourdie started his coaching career at local project First Touch Football before running the youth teams at Morton.

The Ton director says completing his UEFA B license was a valuable experience and got the chance to sit the course with ex-Scotland international Charlie Adam.

He said: "I just started plugging away doing SFA coaching courses, gradually making my way up through the ladder.

"I coached locally at First Touch Football in the Battery Park, then I met with Derek Anderson many years ago on a coaching course.

"He asked me to help him with the youth academy starting at Morton, and then it just went on from there.

"I did more courses, got my UEFA B license.

"That was quite an intense course. I was on it with a lot of professional players at the time.

"I learned loads, not just from the instructors but the other guys around me.

"I was on a course with Charlie Adam.

"Myself and Charlie had a good few conversations just talking about what his plans are, his future, his views on coaching and managing.

"It was good just bouncing ideas off guys like that."

Gourdie is hopeful some of the players that caught his eye when he coached in the Morton academy can make the grade and step up to play first team level in the future.

He added: "I got my UEFA B and I stopped at that as I was happy where I was.

"Coaching at Morton in charge of under-10s, 11s and 12s was important to Derek Anderson. I remember some of the age groups we had at the time.

"Some of the players were really good, I remember the age groups - 2005, 2006 and 2007s - which are now mostly under-16, 17 and 18 players. Even at that young age I noticed some of these boys have potential to go far.

"Some of these boys are still at Morton academy, and eventually if all goes to plan maybe go through an apprenticeship scheme or maybe hit the first team at some point in the near future."