MORTON hitman Robbie Muirhead says he is surprised to see Inverness fighting to avoid the drop to League One - and feels a sense of relief it is not his side struggling to stay up.

Ton head up to the Highlands on Friday night with the ability to consign Caley to the League One play-offs.

Ton are meanwhile bidding to clinch back-to-back fifth place finishes in the Championship.

Muirhead says the contrast in fortunes shows how punishing a league it can be.

He told the Tele: "I didn’t expect Inverness to be down there fighting relegation at all.

"If you look at how they've been over the last couple of years, they were Scottish Cup finalists, playing Celtic at Hampden last year, and the year before they were in the promotion play-off final and 90 minutes away from going up to the Premiership.

"What's transpired since just shows you the nature of this league."

Muirhead admits that dips in form have proved costly for Morton and cost them their play-off ambition.

But he says he is pleased they have confirmed Championship football at Cappielow for another year after a tricky last quarter.

He told the Tele: "All we have to play for is finishing as high up the table as possible now, which is a situation we’ve got ourselves into with the run of form during March time.

"I am honestly just happy to be away from the relegation battle, which got tighter than it really should have been. Usually 40 points is enough but that might not be the case this year.

"Looking back, it's been a couple of bad runs at either end of the season that killed us. It was on for a spell when we went on that sixteen game unbeaten run. But then the form dipped at the wrong time."

From a personal perspective, Muirhead also feels frustration at not reaching the 20-goal mark.

He added: "I should be at 20 goals already, if I'm being honest, with the chances I've had.

"Having to score a third hat-trick of the season to do it in the final night is a bit of an ask. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen though.

"It would be very tough though considering I only scored my first career one against Kelty back in October."