MORTON manager Dougie Imrie says Calum Waters’ willingness to play through the pain barrier shows why he was so keen to snap him up on a permanent deal.

The 27-year-old left back answered the call of duty as a loanee at the beginning of February as Ton scrambled for cover for the injured Lewis Strapp.

Now he has penned a one-year deal at Cappielow after leaving Kilmarnock at the end of his contract there.

Waters was an ever present in Strapp’s absence, playing all but one game - and Imrie has revealed that he played through injury to help Ton’s playoff cause.

He told the Tele: "I'm delighted to have managed to get Calum tied down for another season. You've seen the qualities that he has since he arrived here in January initially on loan.

"We had to get him in at quite short notice after we found out that Lewis Strapp was more than likely unable to play for us again.

"In the 20 or so games he played with us he was outstanding most if not every week.

"For me he was a 7/10, a real 'steady Eddie'. You know what you'll get from him and he sticks to his job to the best he could.

"It's another real quality player added to the group that he we already have."

"One thing that stood out for me was that he had picked up an injury towards the end of the season but played through the pain barrier for me.

"The last game was too much for him, but he still carried on and gave it everything up until then. That's the type of people I want here.

“If you can get a group of players who’ll run through a brick wall for one another then you’ve won a watch.

“Calum certainly fits into that bracket and he’ll be a real asset for us next season.”

Imrie hopes that by having three out of last season’s first choice back four signed up, he will again have one of the meanest back lines in the league.

He said: “Last year, apart from Lewis, we had Darragh O'Connor, Jack Baird, Carlo Pignatiello and Liam Grimshaw all new to the club and hadn’t played with one another.

“So we’ve got stability there now with three of the back four having played 90 per cent of their games together.

“The continuity is there. Everybody knows their jobs inside out and we are not having to tweak much.

“In that aspect we’re ahead of the game, so all we need now is to add one or two more to complement the squad.”