By Mark Hendry

JIM Duffy says he isn’t reading too much into Dumbarton’s surprise victory over Dundee United last weekend — because the Scottish Championship is such an unpredictable competition.

The Ton manager also insists he is looking at it as just another fixture in what will be a long line of equally difficult matches throughout the season.

He said: “To be honest I don’t really look too much into whenever you play a team, simply because this league is so unpredictable. 

“You can only focus on the game ahead of you and not how someone else played before, or even how we played.

“Dumbarton, the same as any other team, will have their own ambitions and aspirations this year and they will make it extremely difficult. 

“But we’ve got to focus on our own game and try to play as close to the maximum as we can. If we do that we’ve always got a chance of winning because it’s a tough fixture.”

Ton secured an encouraging 2-1 win against Hamilton Accies in the Betfred League Cup last Tuesday and Duffy believes the 90 minutes affected their energy levels late on in their draw with Falkirk at Cappielow. But the Morton boss reckons his players should benefit from being out of action during midweek. 
He added: “Last week obviously we had Hamilton and that, I think, had a bit of an impact later on in the game on Saturday, simply for the fact that energy levels dropped a wee bit. We haven’t had that midweek game this week which should hopefully mean a recharge of the batteries so we can keep going for the full 90 minutes.”

Duffy reckons his side have gained some confidence from recent performances and results, but says players have to look forward at all times and not focus on previous successes or disappointments.

Morton were seconds away from a victory against Falkirk last weekend, only to be denied by a controversial incident in the dying embers of the game. 

And he maintains that the Bairns clash is out of his mind and that his team are ready for the visit of Dumbarton.

He said: “You can gain confidence from performances and from results. But in terms of the general match, that’s gone. 

“Done and dusted. If you look at last week’s game, you’ll never move 
forward.

“We have to treat each match that comes up ahead of us with the same intensity and desire to get a result as we did last week, when we were a fraction away from getting the three points. We want to try and make sure we get three points this week, but you take nothing for granted in this division. 

“Every game is ultra-competitive but we’ll be as competitive as the opposition and hopefully we can capitalise on the chances that come our way.”