MORTON yesterday completed the signing of Neil MacFarlane on a two-year deal, just before the ex-Queen of the South midfielder jetted off on honeymoon with his new bride Jenna.

The player, who was a mainstay in the successful Queens team who reached the Scottish Cup Final against Rangers, was delighted with the move and said: 'I"ve had a good career and hopefully coming here I can extend that and things can take off from here.

'I"m looking forward to it and I feeel that I"m coming to this club at the right time. I am very hopeful of success.' Most of the Morton squad are already well know to MacFarlane who played with Kevin Finlayson in the pair"s early career at Queens Park.

David MacGregor is also a close friend of MacFarlane, both having been brought up in Dunoon.

Neil said: 'I think it"s going to be easy for me to settle in. I know most of the boys. I"ve also played with Ryan McGuffie and Allan Jenkins, so it will be easy enough for me to fit in. That"s another big part of it.' MacFarlane, 31, got married at the weekend but at the moment the couple are undecided on where they will stay. 'We haven"t made up our minds yet. Obviously we"ve been down in Dumfries for three years. I really enjoyed my time down there. It"s a great club and we really got a lot of success there.

'I"ve left a good club and I know this is a good club and I hope things can go well here.' It has been all change for the player, getting married and changing clubs within a matter of days. 'It was brilliant. We had a great time,' he commented on his wedding.

'I"m going on my honeymooon today, then I"ll get back and start looking to train.' Manager Davie Irons was delighted to fix up MacFarlane, having worked with him before, and he said: 'It"s someone I know and he will have a big influence on the team.

'We don"t have anyone who is naturally suited to performing that role.

'He"s got a great CV and is a top pro as well. I know from living down in Dumfries how highly he is regarded and Queen of the South are very disappointed to be losing him.' The Ton boss then said that MacFarlane"s signing for two years showed that he was not at Cappielow for a quick fix.

He continued: 'Our midfield wasn"t particularly strong last season and part of the reason was that we did not have a midfielder to sit in, organise, win the ball and play it simple.

'That affected the way others played. Now we"ll be able to push Stevie Masterton a bit forward and use the athleticism of Ryan McGuffie and Allan Jenkins more. We"ve got Kevin [Finlayson] and Jim [McAlister] for the wide areas.

'But I don"t think we"ve seen the best of Ryan [McGuffie] and Allan [Jenkins]. Ryan showed his best ever form with Gretna when he played wide in the midfield five. That allowed him to get forward a lot more. Getting Neil in will help these two and should allow them to make a real impact. As I say, we haven"t seen the best of them yet.' Now the chase is on for one more arrival - a striker to augment the front players at Cappielow, if the budget permits, and that will depend upon whether or not Morton can move one or two players on who are currently under contract.

'There are three or four I have in mind,' said Irons. 'But now I might be able to get away on holiday for a week, then come back to see what can be done.'