MORTON boss Dougie Imrie reckons that his side’s friendly against St Mirren was a good gauger to see how far his players have come in a short period of time.

Imrie hasn’t been shy in suggesting that he’ll set up his team to move in a new direction this season - after being lumped with the ‘big physical Morton’ tag for much of his tenure on Sinclair Street.

And he believes that most of those within Cappielow will have seen the progress that’s been made despite the scoreline against Stephen Robinson’s side, who ran out 2-0 winners in the end to win the Communities Cup.

Imrie was, though, pleased to see his side come through their pre-season schedule unscathed as he gears up for his Premier Sports Cup opener against East Fife today.

He told the Tele: “Tuesday was always going to be a gauge of how far we’ve come in a short space of time and I think people would have seen that.

“The disappointing thing was the result. But it’s pre-season, it doesn’t matter as it’s more about getting minutes in the legs.

“It’s about coming through that unscathed and we’ve managed to do that.

“I was really pleased with the first half to 60 minutes, all the subs disrupted the game after that but I was really pleased with the workout over the course of the 90-minutes against a very good side.”