MORTON defender Darren Hynes has today told manager Dougie Imrie he's ready to challenge for a regular first-team place.

The right-back put in a solid performance in just his third start of the season in Ton’s penalty shoot-out defeat away to Raith Rovers in the SPFL Trust Trophy.

The 23-year-old admits it has been a frustrating period having to spend most games watching on from the sidelines in recent months.

However, he says maintaining high standards and driving on his team-mates in training means he'll be well prepared when he's called upon by the Ton boss.

He told the Tele: "The team has been on 11 games unbeaten and everybody has been playing well.

"I just do what I can during the week to help the team in training, like keep the standards up and continue working away.

"If an opportunity comes then hopefully, I am ready to go and take it."

Hynes almost opened the scoring at Stark’s Park midway through the opening period and he hopes his performance will earn him further opportunities with the season reaching the halfway stage.

He said: "It was a good chance for a few of us that haven’t had much game time.

"It was great to get some minutes and we were obviously happy to put in a good performance.

"To keep up that unbeaten run within 90 minutes is always a positive to take as well.

"I was obviously happy to get a start and get 90 minutes under my belt again. I thought I had scored to be honest.

"Hopefully I put in a good enough performance to get more opportunities in future."

The right-back believes Morton could have been awarded a penalty before the game went to penalties when Lewis Strapp appeared to have been tripped over inside the area.

Hynes says the players spent time practicing penalties in the build-up to the tie - but he believes it's hard to match the pressure of a shootout in training.

Hynes said: "To be honest I couldn’t really see what was happening, because I was back on the park when they started breaking, so I never really saw properly what happened, but it one of those ones, sometimes you get these decisions sometimes you don’t.

"We obviously never got it. There's always a chance a tie will go to penalties, so we do practice them, but you can’t replicate in training the feeling of it an actual competition."

Morton host Queen's Park this weekend in what is their last home fixture of the year and the full-back hopes they can end 2022 on a high in front of their own fans.

He added: "Every game is hard in this league, everyone is probably capable of beating anyone.

"But our home form has been good this season, we have always said it's crucial to maintain our form at Cappielow.

"Hopefully we can end the year at Cappielow on a positive result."