JIM DUFFY has hailed teenage midfielder Mark Russell for his terrific League Cup display against Partick Thistle.

The Morton manager said his performance was one of several positives for his team as they fell just short against their Premiership peers.

Kris Doolan got the only goal to put Thistle into the third round but they were pushed all the way at Cappielow.

Morton striker Stefan McCluskey missed two glorious chances before he was booked for diving in a penalty-box incident that Duffy was adamant should have resulted in a spot-kick for his side.

With this weekend's League One clash with Forfar in mind, the Ton boss used the Jags clash to give some of his fringe stars a chance to shine.

And he was delighted with their performances as they more than held their own against the top-flight Jags.

Duffy said: "We have to use our squad. We left one or two players out and freshened up in a couple of positions.

"We just don't have the same depth of squad as some other clubs so we can't do it wholesale but, by and large, the changes we made worked.

"I thought that Mark Russell was tremendous. He was playing against Stephen O'Donnell who, in my opinion, is one of the best overlapping full-backs in the country. But Mark matched him time and time again.

"It wasn't an easy shift as O'Donnell is always pushing on and is great at doing that.

"Mark maybe lost him once or twice in the game but, for an 18-year-old, I thought that he put in a terrific overall display."