McPherson pleased with Pars display if not outcome

Morton assistant manager Craig McPherson was pleased with the performance against Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday despite his disappointment with the outcome.

The Greenock men suffered a 3-1 reverse at East End Park in the final away game of the regular Ladbrokes Championship campaign at the weekend.

Although the former Ton midfielder was less than satisfied with the goals conceded, he felt the general display was decent and offered encouraging signs the team were rediscovering their edge ahead of the play-offs.

McPherson, who was speaking with Jim Duffy suspended, said: “We were very disappointed with the result, although within the game we felt as though we had spells where we played good football and created opportunities.

“Collectively we can’t defend the way we defended as a team. You can’t expect to do that and win games of football. [We need] to help each other out of situations and work harder to stop situations developing.

“And it’s early goals in both halves and that’s something we try and influence them on, making sure we’re strong defensively in the first five or 10 minutes of a game. We get the ball forward, keep it away from opposition defenders and let the game settle down.

“But lost a goal after a couple of minutes through some slack play as a team, and it breaks and the boy scores. We equalise, get in at half-time and then come back out in the second half and lose a similar goal.

“It just puts you in a difficult position and after that we just kind of plodded through the game, and Dunfermline’s third goal obviously kills it off.

“We created opportunities at the other end of the pitch, but you have to be ruthless and take them as well. So if you can’t do either in both boxes then it’s a recipe for a disappointing result.

“In general play I thought we played well. There were some good passages of play, getting into the wide areas and getting crosses in the box and people making runs and trying to get on the end of things.

“Losing games of football can affect you, but I felt today the edge to them was coming back. The confidence is there and we have the play-offs to look forward to.

“The confidence comes from the players going out and putting that level of performance in. We know it will be there when the play-offs come around, but we have to work towards it and that’s something we’ll do between now and next week.”

Image: David Bell