Dumbarton manager Jim Duffy admits he doesn't know what kind of response to expect from his young Sons after they were taken apart by Greenock Morton at Cappielow last night.

The hosts lead five goals to nil at the break, and despite the second-half being played at a snails pace, the damage on the score sheet and to his 'naive' players' mentality had already been done.

Morgyn Neill put the ball into his own net as Peter Grant, Kyle Jacobs, Lewis Strapp and John Sutton also scored in the first half with a Neill header reducing the deficit to four just after the hour mark.

But substitute Bob McHugh added a sixth for a Ton side who rarely shifted out of third or fourth gear.

The opening goals after just 15 and 17 minutes set the tone as Sons struggled to get a hold of the game in any way. 

Duffy said: "In terms of being a competitive game, it was a non-event.

"We didn't get near Morton at all, obviously in the first-half in particular.

"Funnily enough we started okay in the first 10 or 15 minutes, there was one or two little balls into the box, and then we just capitulated for about 25 minutes.

"We were all looking about each other and there was a bit of naivety - I think that was there for everybody to see.

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"We are naive in a lot of aspects and Morton fully exploited that and against a good side with some good players you can't afford to feel sorry for yourself and make as many basic errors as we did.

"Only time will tell [if the defeat will do lasting damage].

"It'll do one of two things - it can absolutely deflate them or they'll understand what it's all about really at a higher level and they can learn from it.

"As I said to the players, they have to understand what's required to compete at the level Morton played at tonight. If they can learn from it then fine but it can go one of two ways.

"On Saturday we did okay and worked away hard but tonight we were well beaten by a better side.

"I'm experienced enough to know that these type of things are not pleasant and they can happen on occasion."

On Monday, Duffy added to his squad with the addition of Matthew Shiels on a six month loan from Rangers.

The 18-year-old, who can play in a number of positions across the pitch from left-back to right-midfield, sat out of Tuesday's defeat with a slight groin strain.

He may well be added to the squad for Saturday's visit of Queen of the South with Duffy also hoping another one or two players can return from injury sooner rather than later. 

He added: "We spoke to the physio today and he just said that he thinks it would be better to be left out and I'm sure he's absolutely delighted that he was!

"He's left sided and gives us a different option on that side of the pitch.

"He can play through the middle and on the right but he's more of a winger.

"Elsewhere, Conor Scullion is not far away and he'll join in his first competitive training session on Thursday and Isaac Layne's not far away either."

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