KELTY Hearts boss Michael Tidser is excited by the potential of "unorthodox" forward Tiwi Daramola after the youngster netted his first professional goal.

The 21-year-old netted first for Kelty in Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Greenock Morton in the New Central Park side's Viaplay Cup group stage opener.

The Cappielow outfit fired back from being a goal behind at the break with strikes from Steven Boyd, Robbie Crawford and a late clincher from Kirk Broadfoot, earning Dougie Imrie's side the three points in Group D.

Tidser, who started alongside fellow ex-Ton midfielder Reece Lyon in the centre of the park for Kelty, is hopeful Daramola will prove to be a key asset for the Maroon Machine this season.

"Tiwi is a strong boy, and unorthodox at times," he told Kelty Hearts TV.

"Sometimes you don't know what he's going to do.

"You see the quality (he has) in his finish. I've seen it in training over the last couple of weeks that he's got real quality when he gets into that final third.

"I said to him today that I thought he was excellent and gave us a real threat down that side and he's got raw pace which hurts teams.

"I'm sure he'll be a big player for us this season if he keeps up performances like that."

Daramola signed a three-and-a-half year deal with Kelty in January this year from Bo'ness Athletic, with the promising talent joining this summer.

He shared his manager's belief that the performance has given Kelty a base to build from ahead of tonight's trip to Edinburgh City (Wednesday).

He said: "I thought we played well, and I thought I done alright myself, but it's horrible to lose a game of football at the end of the day.

"I thought we controlled it for the first 60 minutes but after that, I don't know, when they scored the first goal it went a bit flat from us and then they've obviously gone on to score the second and third.

"We started well and first half I thought we were the better team and could have had two or three. At the end of the day, you have to put your chances away to win the game.

"As I said, there's positives to take and it's a chance for us to show the gaffer that we can dominate games and see it through the whole 90 minutes.

"Everyone has got a point to prove that we can step up and win games of football."

Daramola had showed great persistence to turn his marker and run into the box before blasting a rifled drive across the face of goal into the far corner for the opener on the stroke of half-time.

Steven Boyd tucked home just shy of the hour mark to level matters, with Robbie Crawford producing a carbon copy finish to edge the visitors ahead five minutes later.

Both sides had chances, with Craig Johnston denied well for Kelty, but Kirk Broadfoot turned home from close range from a corner in stoppage time to complete the Morton turnaround.

On the display, Tidser said: "As I said to the lads, there's loads of positives there and stuff to build on. It's a good Championship side (we were playing) and all in all, the result matters, but we'll dust ourselves down and take our medicine.

"Morton are a very physical side and are good at what they do. I thought we stood up to the test, but after half-time they changed their shape a wee bit and went through us for a short spell. Jai Quitongo came on and added a real threat down that side and that's where their (two) goals have come from.

"I said to the lads that for the first goal, I'll hold my hands up and say that it's my fault. I switched off on our left-hand side and the boy cuts it back and they score. We should do better, myself included, but we can take it as a team."