JIM DUFFY has banned his Morton players from talking about any title bid.
And he believes a win for Hibs over his own team at Easter Road this evening will mean the Leith side won't be caught at the top of the Championship.
A win for Morton would take the Greenock side into second place and seven points behind the leaders with a crucial game in hand.
However, should Neil Lennon’s men extend their lead at the top, it would be difficult to see anyone catching them at this late stage and at the third attempt, Hibs would return to the Premiership.
Lennon believes the title would be his team’s should they win. Duffy, on the other hand, won’t allow anyone to get too far ahead of themselves.
“It would be great for the club and for the fans to talk about being second or being involved in a title chase; however for me it is all about getting points on board,” said the Morton manager.
“Getting something from Easter Road would do that as opposed to anything else. At the end of the season we can look to see where our points have taken us. Also if we were to lose this game then Hibs would pretty much have a stranglehold on the title.”
This is something Lennon agrees with. Victory would take Hibs 13 points clear of Morton and Falkirk with just six matches left the Northern Irishman is adamant it would require a capitulation of mammoth proportions for them not to finish the job.
Asked whether a triumph would see them seal the title, Lennon said: “I think so. Psychologically, I would imagine it would take the mother of all collapses for us to give anyone a sniff.
“But if we are going to win the game we will need to play very strongly. Morton will come here on the back of a disappointing defeat against Dunfermline to put one over on us. They have had a great season and they are a very difficult team to play against.”
Morton beat Hibs 3-0 earlier in the season but Duffy doesn’t believe that will have any bearing on this match.
He said: “That game has no bearing on this one at all. All it does is show that on any given day if one team plays to the top of their ability and their opponents are off it then a surprise score-line can happen.”
Lee Kilday joins Conor Pepper and Jai Quitongo in missing out after suffering an ankle injury in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat from Dunfermline that ended Morton’s year-long unbeaten run at home
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here