DEREK Gaston believes the international break might allow a few of Morton’s injured stars to recover before their next league fixture.

The Ton stopper insists the scheduling doesn’t suit the Greenock men as they are desperate to make up for last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Queen of the South on their home patch.

But the 30-year-old says he’ll look at the positives from the weekend without competitive action — as key players like Thomas O’Ware and Michael Tidser will have the chance to improve their fitness levels for the Dunfermline fixture on November 21.

He told the Tele: “There’s never a good time for a break because most teams, whether you’re winning or losing, will want to get straight back into it again. If you’ve lost you’ll want to get back to winning ways like us and if you’ve won you want it to continue.

“The one thing I’d say about this break though is that we’ve got quite a few injuries just now. Having a week or two off can really help you get your team back together and your players back fit again. In that sense it’s a good time.

“We’ve had Connor McManus, Michael Tidser and Jai Quitongo all out the last few weeks and probably this afternoon would’ve been too soon for them as well. 

“Another 10 days or whatever it’ll be might be ideal to get one or two of them back for the Dunfermline game.

“It gives them a bit of time. And some of the players have been quite tired, some players who have played a lot of football recently. It gives them a chance to wind down a little bit and get their legs back a bit.”

He added: “It’s not a huge excuse because there are teams that play Saturday and Tuesday every week down in England. But they have big squads. 

“If you look at our bench last week you only really had Robert Thomson who was the experienced player. We’ve been down to the bare bones a wee bit just now. So the last few weeks it’s been the same players who have played 80 or 90 minutes for however many games. That can take its toll a wee bit.

“The manager likes to freshen things up now and then but he’s been unable to do that much in recent weeks.”

Gaston remains frustrated at Morton’s loss of cheap goals against the Doonhamers last Saturday and labelled the game a ‘huge disappointment’.

He said: “The goals we conceded were disappointing. If you give Stephen Dobbie the time we gave him you’re going to get punished because he’s one of the best players in the league. The second goal could’ve went anywhere after I’ve made a good save. That was also a wee bit unfortunate.

“But it was disappointing, we didn’t threaten much up the other end either and overall it was just a poor performance and result.”