Ray McKinnon has said he feels re-energised after bringing a six-month hiatus from the game to an end by taking charge of a Greenock Morton side eyeing promotion to the Premiership within three years.

McKinnon was unveiled as Jim Duffy's replacement at Cappielow on Wednesday after penning a one-year rolling contract with The Ton.

The 47-year-old had been out of work since parting company with Morton's Championship rivals Dundee United in October.

McKinnon said he shares Morton's vision of bringing top-flight football to Inverclyde within three seasons, but insisted his initial job was to rebuild a squad which currently has just four first-team players on it's books.

He said: "My vision is to try and take this team to the Premiership.

"It's going to be step-by-step, it's not going to be overnight, the first port of call is to build a competitive squad."

He added: "We've only got four players signed at the club so the challenge is to rebuild as quickly as possible.

"It's going to be a challenge but if you look at the flip side of that it's a blank canvas for me.

"It gives me that flexibility as to how we want to play and how we recruit.

"But we are well aware that we've only four players signed so we need to it quickly."

McKinnon departed Tannadice after United endured a sluggish start to their ultimately unsuccessful promotion bid.

The former Tangerines midfielder insisted he has no point to prove upon his return to management, though.

He continued: "Absolutely not, I've no regrets and thought we did an excellent job there.

"I'm very pleased with what we achieved and hopefully I can use that experience to become a better manager.

"I'm not here to prove anybody wrong, I just feel really energised to be back in football."

Crawford Rae took over duties as Morton chairman in April after his father Douglas stepped down from the role after 20 years in the post.

The new club chairman said his intention now was to carry out his dad's mission of bringing Premiership football to Greenock.

He said: "One of the regrets my father, who was chairman for 20 years, had was that he never managed to bring top-flight football to the people of Inverclyde.

"My father isn't keeping well at the minute, his health is poor, and that is now one of my ambitions.

"We've a three-year target and will try our very best to bring top-flight football to Inverclyde.

"When we interviewed Ray he was an absolute stand-out, he was exciting and shared our vision.

"Once we met we were blown away with his passion for the game."