Tam backs Ton boss to give Brendan run for his money
FOR many, the destination of this season’s manager of the year awards is already a foregone conclusion.
The i mpact of Brendan Rodgers at Celtic certainly has him as a strong bookies’ favourite to sweep the board, but according to Morton’s Thomas O’Ware, Jim Duffy might just have something to say about that.
Duffy has led his men to third place in the Championship and the semi-final of the League Cup despite the meagre resources at his disposal.
They now travel to Ibrox on Sunday full of confidence to take on Rangers in the Scottish Cup fifth round, and if they can pull off a shock there as well as qualifying for the promotion play-offs, then O’Ware reckons his boss must be due some recognition.
“The gaffer and Craig McPherson have done a great job bringing in the players and they get the best out of us all,” O’Ware said.
“People might say we are over-achieving this year and we are doing better than many people expected, and that’s credit to the management team that they keep managing to produce the goods and replace the players who have left.
“They have been brilliant since they came in and getting us straight back up into the Championship certainly wasn’t an easy job with Dunfermline being in the league.
“It was a whole new team and I think there are only three of us still here. To then go on and finish fifth in the Championship, before this season taking it on another level again, reaching a semi-final and sitting third, has been great.
“There is still a long way to go and Brendan Rodgers has already practically won the league and the League Cup and will be looking at the treble, but the gaffer has been great with the budget he has got.
“You never know what will happen, but come the end of the season he should definitely be up there with Brendan Rodgers. I don’t see too many other managers doing a better job than him in Scotland, so he must be in with a shout.”
Morton bounced back from a disappointing weekend defeat at Queen of the South by defeating Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy on Tuesday night.
And while O’Ware admits that the Cappielow squad are confident of upsetting the odds at Ibrox, he isn’t being lulled into a false sense of security by Rangers’ relatively stuttering form.
“It’s the Scottish Cup, so you never know what can happen, we’re just hoping that we can go there and do ourselves justice,” he said.
“Our league form has been good this year after the start that we had, and we got to the semi-final of the League Cup, but I don’t think that anybody who was a betting man would go and put their money on us.
“Regardless of how badly Rangers are doing, they are still a massive club and they are from the league above, so we have to go there and forget everything that has happened before.
“We’re not looking at Rangers’ form; no matter how they have been getting on it’s still Rangers at the end of the day, so it’s still going to be a massive game no matter how much pressure they are under.
“It will be some of the boys first time playing at Ibrox, but regardless of how many times you play there, I think every time is a new experience.
“You don’t get to play in front of 40 or 50,000 every week, so even for myself and the other boys who have played there before, it will still be something to take in and enjoy.”