Morton defender Michael Doyle reckons attacker Jai Quitongo will be anxious to show how far he has come since his release by Aberdeen when he takes on his former club in Saturday’s Betfred Cup semi-final.
Quitongo spent four months with Aberdeen after joining from Hamilton Accies in October 2014, but signed for the Championship club last summer after being released by the Reds.
After just seven first-team appearances last season, the 19-year-old has shone this season with goals in Betfred Cup wins against Kilmarnock, Hamilton and Dundee United.
Morton rejected a £100,000 bid from English League Two side Doncaster Rovers in August and Quitongo has since been linked
with Premier League clubs including Crystal Palace, Southampton and Swansea.
Saturday provides Quitongo with the ideal opportunity to show the Dons were wrong to let him go and Doyle believes the teenager is reaping the bnefits of finally being handed first-team football under Ton manager Jim Duffy.
Doyle said: “He’s been at a couple of clubs and sometimes it doesn’t
work out.
“Our manager gave him that bit of confidence by showing faith in
him, which he has done with a lot of the players who have not had a chance anywhere else.
“The management team have done a fair bit of work with Jai and things don’t happen overnight for a player.
“He is a young and hungry player who has a lot of ambition but the manager keeps him grounded.
“A lot of it is down to the manager but the rest is down to Jai. At the
start of the season we were crying out for a forward and it is a lot of responsibility to put on the shoulders of a young player, but he has stepped up.”
Doyle reckons the Wishaw-born player, who is the son of former Hearts and St Mirren midfielder Jose Quitongo, is just one of several youngsters flourishing under Duffy.
Doyle, who joined the Cappielow club from Premiership side St
Johnstone in the summer, added: “Jai gets a lot of attention because of his father, but anybody who comes to our games will know we have a lot of young players who are doing really well.
“We are lucky if we’ve got three players over the age of 25. Attacker Gary Oliver, at 21, is just a couple of years older than Jai, while left back Mark Russell is only 20 but has played almost 100 games for us.
“We also have a 16-year-old, Lewis Strapp, who came off the bench in some of the Betfred Cup games earlier in the season, so there are a lot of players in the squad who could be stealing the headlines.
“I’m only 25 and I still want to step up a couple of levels, but we are Morton players just now and we are all concentrating on doing our best for the club.
“We all work for each other and run each other into the ground.”
It will not be the first time Doyle has come up against the Dons this year, with the defender making his St Johnstone debut in a 3-0 win against Derek McInnes’ side at McDiarmid Park in April, during a short-lived spell with the Perth club last season.
Doyle expects a much tougher test this time around against a side which has recorded five wins on the bounce.
He added: “Saints were a bit of a thorn in their side last season, but everybody in Scotland knows Aberdeen are a good team.
“They have probably taken a step up since last year. With Rangers
coming into the Premiership they had to strengthen and they
beat them 2-1 at Pittodrie last month.
“We are thrilled just to be in the semi-finals alongside Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen.
“With the game coming up, we’ve had a few players coming back
from injury recently as it will be the biggest game of some of their careers.
“We are all excited about the game, but we know how dangerous
Aberdeen are.
“Our manager will have us ready for the game, though. He has been around a long time and his knowledge of the game is second to none.
“Against the other Premiership sides we have faced in earlier rounds we have just been doing the same things, playing our football rather than adapting to the opposition.
“We just have to worry about what we are doing and stick to our plan.”
