MORTON manager Jim Duffy watched his team get back to winning ways at Livingston — but says their performances can still be better and has urged his players to find another gear at Alloa tomorrow.

After back-to-back league losses to Raith Rovers and St Mirren, the Ton recorded a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Livi in the Scottish Cup last weekend.

Duffy was pleased with the outcome as well as the endeavour and defending but feels his side still have a bit to go in terms of their attacking play and is looking for a slicker passing game against the Wasps.

He told the Tele: “It’s about Saturday now and how we approach that, and I think we have to be a bit sharper, move the ball a bit quicker.

“I think we’ve played okay — we’ve not played poorly — in the last couple of games and we certainly deserved something from the St Mirren game and just shaded a tight match against Livingston.

“But we’ve not been fantastic. Our organisation has kept us in the games at times, and I think if we were a bit slicker we could have won more comfortably and taken something from the other games.

“We’ve not shifted the ball quickly enough, not made the right decisions at times in the final third, so we have to be better in those two things, particularly when you go to a place like Alloa.

“I think you have to collect it and move it quicker so you don’t give them a chance to get into their shape and formation, as well as retaining it better.

“We have to take more care in key areas and that’s something we have been emphasising to the players and working on through the week.

“You can do all the training routines in the world, but players have to make those decisions in the match situation.

“So I think we can still be a bit better in that area. If we can add that to our game we can move onto the next level — and we will have to be right on our game to get the three points tomorrow.”

Duffy and assistant Craig McPherson took in the Wasps’ 1-0 win away at Raith Rovers on Tuesday, and he left impressed by what he had seen.

According to the Ton boss, Alloa had an energy and enthusiasm that defied their league position, as well as the look of a team that was fired up to try and fight their way out of relegation trouble.

He reckons any side that heads to the Indodrill expecting to take on a bottom-of-the-table team crippled by their current predicament will be sure to get a wakeup call.

The 56-year-old added: “Myself and Craig went through to watch them against Raith Rovers and I was very impressed with their attitude and work ethic.

"It was absolutely terrific and nothing less than I expected. Sometimes people look at someone at the bottom of the league and think they’ve given up, but that’s not the case at all.

"They have quite a young team with a great deal of enthusiasm, and playing regular first-team football was something they looked as if they were really enjoying.

“With them winning, it closed the gap on the teams above them, and I think that makes things more difficult for us. Perhaps if they’d put in all that hard work and lost it might have deflated them a wee bit, but they will have a spring in their step and make for another difficult match for us.

"And if football was as simple as being a certain position in the league and because somebody’s further down the league you win, then it would be the most boring sport in the world. It doesn’t work that way — football isn’t played on paper — so it’s one we need to approach properly with the right attitude, focus and mentality.”

Alloa’s victory kept Ton within three points of Raith Rovers in fourth place but also gave tomorrow’s opponents a morale boost ahead of the Greenock men’s visit.

When asked if he had a preferred outcome while sat in the Stark’s Park stand, Duffy said: “I think all preferred results in this division are generally a draw.

“I think that’s what pretty much everyone looks for if you’re watching other games, any time from the beginning of the season onwards.

“No one gains too much in terms of points to make a significant difference either way – but, to be perfectly honest, I don’t sit there hoping for this or that.

“Not just now anyway, not in January — I might in March, but in January it’s immaterial — there are too many games to go to think how it can affect things.”

The win was Jack Ross’s first since recently replacing Danny Lennon in the Alloa hotseat, and tomorrow’s clash will be the third successive match the Ton have faced a club with a new boss.

Alex Rae had taken over at St Mirren shortly before the New Year derby while former Cappielow coach David Hopkin was freshly appointed as head coach at Livi prior to last week’s cup tie.

Duffy said: “A new manager comes in and brings a freshness. That’s not being detrimental to the previous manager, there’s just sometimes a freshness about the place.

"I can only go on what I saw, and Alloa had a real appetite for the game and a spark about them. They may well have been like that under Danny and just never got the breaks, I don’t know.

“St Mirren and Livingston also had a new manager and it’s made it difficult for us. They’ve all had a wee extra incentive to try and impress.

“But we have the incentive to try and get another three points and that’s the biggest incentive and motivation players should have.”

In terms of meetings between the clubs thus far this term, the Ton have triumphed 1-0 on both occasions.

Each time the sides were separated by a set-piece, with Thomas O’Ware heading home defender Ricki Lamie’s deep dead-ball in August and Ross Forbes netting with a fantastic free-kick in October.

But Duffy insists it doesn’t necessarily follow that the pattern of results will be repeated or the match will even pan out in a similar fashion.

He said: “It’s not an automatic thing that if you beat someone, you beat them the next time.  

"Teams have their ups and downs and it can depend on what cycle of form you’re in.

“You know that you’re good enough to get a result, but you also realise how close the games have been and that it could have been about a fraction one way or the other. I seem to remember in the game down there Gats [Derek Gaston] had a brilliant save at 0-0 and we went up and scored. Football can change in a split second.

“A set-piece can make the difference in tight games. I mean, you look at the two previous matches with Alloa, the goal we lost against St Mirren or even the Liverpool-Arsenal game on Wednesday.

“If someone gets a wee bit of movement or someone switches off for a split second, it can cost you or win you the game.

"In tight games it can make the difference, but you don’t know if it will be a tight game until the match unfolds so you’ve got to go and play your game. For us, if we defend properly, as we have been, and take that bit more care going forward, there’s every chance we can get a positive result.”