Morton are earning more than just headlines for their recent fine form as they completed the Championship’s October awards double with Jim Duffy named manager of the month yesterday.

But as the spotlight grows on Cappielow and the feats of Duffy’s men, the more their supporters must be worried that other parties will be waiting to swoop for the best of their young talent.

Not only that, but ‘Ton manager Duffy is even fancied by some as a potential replacement for Gordon Strachan should he vacate the Scotland manager’s office in the near future.

The man himself is relaxed about the prospect of potentially losing some of his brightest prospects though, as for him that will signify that the club is doing their job properly.

And if the likes of a Jai Quitongo or O’Ware do indeed go onto bigger and better things, then it will only encourage the next generation to see Morton as a prime place to develop their careers.

“Clubs like Morton have got to accept that if you develop good young players then other clubs are going to come along and take a look,” Duffy said. “It’s not about selling players, it’s about encouraging ambition.

“We lost a lot of really good attacking players in the summer, and Denny Johnstone, Declan McManus and Alex Samuel were real number nines.

“But Jai emerged from almost nowhere really. The Betfred Cup was a bit of a help because it allowed us to play a few of the younger boys like Jai and he got a couple of goals and a bit of confidence.

“He had a great experience with Scotland under-21s recently, although obviously the results weren’t the best. But he was away travelling, flying, staying in hotels, going through the preparation and the meetings and the analysis.

“He’s only just turned 19, so these are all new aspects of the game to him, and that will stand him in good stead if he has aspirations to go on and play at a higher level which I know he has.”

Quitongo has rightly been praised for his fine form this season, but Duffy was delighted for defender O’Ware to get due credit too for his consistently good showings.

He said: “Thomas thoroughly deserves his award and I thought he was terrific in the semi-final against Aberdeen playing against the likes of Adam Rooney, Jonny Hayes,Niall McGinn and James Maddison.

“No matter who he was up against I thought he was outstanding. He has shown he can play against good players at the top level.

“With the way the game is played today, teams are looking for players who are good on the ball and he is very two-footed. He’s good in the air obviously, he passes the ball well and reads the game well.

“Similarly to Jai, if he’s got aspirations to play at a higher level it’s a big season

“I don’t think there are too many better young centre-backs going about just now, so I think that clubs will be keeping an eye on him and that’s fine.

“If he can continue to play at the same level he’s at then I don’t have any issue with that.”

Duffy was slightly bashful as he accepted his award yesterday, preferring to shift the accolades onto his backroom staff and the players for their efforts.

“It’s always difficult for a manager to shout from the rooftops about themselves,” he said.

“It’s good for the players because you can sense they are a bit more relaxed when they’ve been having good results.

“There’s an emphasis on looking forward instead of focusing on criticism, because that has been deflected.

“As a manager you’re probably more used to the negative side than the positive side, but nevertheless it is nice to have a period where you do well.

“Hopefully there will be two or three of these down the line, because then your season will have been a decent one.”