Striker Alex Samuel may have been forgiven for thinking that swapping Swansea City for the rather less salubrious surroundings of Scottish Championship side Morton would result in a departure from the glamour of the English Premiership.
True, Cappielow may not quite be the Liberty Stadium, but the big games just keep on coming for Jim Duffy’s side.
Now, fresh from plundering two goals to help put Premiership Motherwell to the sword in the League Cup on Tuesday night, on-loan Samuel is aiming to repeat the trick against Rangers in Greenock this Sunday – and there’s no place he would rather be.
“It’s a very exciting time for the club and we’re looking forward to it hugely,” he said.
“The atmosphere will be awesome and I think it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“There will probably be around 8-9000 fans at Cappielow and as a player you want to be involved in games like this. I couldn’t think of anything better.
“All my family and my girlfriend will be watching on television so I’m delighted with that.
“When you’re playing you forget about all of that though and concentrate on the game, and it will be the same on Sunday.
“We’ll play our own game, keep doing exactly what we’re doing and hopefully we can come away with a positive result.
“The club is absolutely brilliant and I’m really enjoying it.
“Everything here is fantastic; Jim Duffy is fantastic, the fans are amazing and I can’t really talk highly enough of the club.
“They’ve made me feel very welcome.
“Swansea are obviously playing in the English Premiership, and the facilities are top level. Obviously Morton doesn’t have those kind of facilities, but the work ethic at the club is terrific."
Samuel is still on a high after his heroics on Tuesday night, but he insists that the buzz he got from helping the team was far greater than any personal glory he took from the occasion.
He believes that Morton’s impressive form since they were promoted to the Championship has been built upon such a selfless attitude to teamwork, with each and every one of their players ready to make sacrifices for the greater good of the team.
This attitude starts on the training ground, which has given Samuel huge encouragement that he made the right decision to come to Morton for his development as a player.
He said: “Every day in training we work hard and you definitely know that you’ve had a training session.
“The sessions are a lot harder at Morton and to be fair, that’s exactly what I need right now.
“Swansea are still in my plans for the future hopefully, but coming out on loan here I think I can get experience, develop as a player, get goals and try to make a name for myself
“It was great to start against a Premiership team and it was nice to compete against that standard of player.
“I loved every second of it and it was awesome to score the goals. That’s what I’m here to do and it was great to get off the mark for Morton.
“It was a real test and we were the underdogs, but we played as a team and we put everything into it to get the result.
“Every game we play we always put 100 percent in regardless of who the team is.
“We went into the match with a game-plan, played to our own strengths and thankfully we got a great result.
“It was my birthday on Sunday so my girlfriend came all the way up from Swansea and stayed to watch the game, so it was a very special moment for me.
“It’s been a very good week!”
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