New Morton boss Ray McKinnon has 'nothing to prove' to Dundee United

Ray McKinnon claims there's no point for him to prove to Dundee United after taking over at Greenock Morton.

The 47-year-old was axed as Tannadice boss in October with the Arabs five points behind eventual Championship winners St Mirren.

But the man who replaced him, Csaba Laszlo, was unable to inspire the Tangerines to better, with his side crashing out of the promotion battle in the play-off semi-finals.

But McKinnon insists his only motivation for taking up his new role at Cappielow is to guide Ton to the Premiership.

McKinnon - who has been handed a one-year rolling deal by chairman Crawford Rae - said: "After six months out I was getting extremely bored - there is only so much you can do in the house.

2But I'm delighted to be back. I feel refreshed, I feel energised, I feel motivated.

"Will I change my approach to management after what happened at United? Absolutely not. I've no regrets there. I thought we did an excellent job and I was very pleased with what we achieved.

"I will use all those experiences to come down here and be a better manager.

"I'm not here to prove anybody wrong. I just feel really hungry to be back in football. My passion is strong and that along with Crawford's vision for the club is making me very excited.''

Rae, who has taken over the running of the club from his elderly father Douglas, has not been afraid to put his own stamp on the club after deciding to axe the popular Jim Duffy as boss.

And he believes McKinnon can help fulfil his three-year plan to take the club to the top flight.

He said: "One of the regrets my father, who was chairman for 17 years, had was that he never managed to bring top-flight football to the people of Inverclyde.

"My father is not keeping to well at the moment, he is quite poorly so fulfilling his dream is now one of my ambitions.

"We have a three-year target to do that and when we interviewed Ray, he was an absolute stand-out. He shares our vision.''

And McKinnon believes promotion should now be the aim after watching Livingston shock their way to the Premiership.

But with just four players currently on Ton's books, he admits that will be a tough ask.

"Everybody should look and be impressed by what Livingston have achieved,'' he said.

"That will be the incentive for everybody. If you can put the right squad together then hopefully that's a possibility - and that's something we'll be striving for.

"But the target for right this minute and the season ahead is to build a competitive team.

"We've only got four players signed at the moment so it's going to be a challenge - but we look at the flip side of that and it's a blank canvas for me.'

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