MICHAEL Doyle says Morton must cut out the mistakes if they are to arrest the form slump which has seen them lose three matches in a row.

Ton have fallen to second bottom of the Championship table after crashing to a 2-1 defeat against Ian McCall’s Ayr United on Saturday.

Summer signing Doyle says the defeat was largely self-inflicted and knows that he and his team-mates have to end the errors quickly if they are to move up the league.

He told the Tele: “I thought the two goals we conceded were from our mistakes when we switched off.

“In this league you get punished for mistakes.

“We only actually made two or three the whole game at the back and we were punished for two of them.

“The boys are disappointed.”

But the 25-year-old insists it is still early days in the campaign overall and he is confident that Ton can turn the corner.

He said: “If we get the mistakes out of the way and try to build on it, I think we’ll be fine. You’d rather get your poor results out of the way this early in the season, because it’s a long year.

“After Christmas you can get a good run in and be pushing for top four.”

While the Greenock men are upset about defensive lapses proving costly, they have also been toiling to make an impact in an attacking sense — scoring just four goals on league duty until now.

Doyle says the whole squad is working hard every day in training to put it right.

He said: “We need to work on some things attack-wise but we are working on it.

“It’s not that we don’t know what we need to work on.

“My crossing is a thing I know I need to work on. But it’s all about confidence, too.

“I don’t think we’re a million miles away.”

A further headache for Ton has been the number of injuries they have had to contend with in the early part of the campaign, a curse that struck again at the weekend when Ricki Lamie was forced off during the first half.

Doyle admits it was the last thing they needed as they look to get 
back on even keel, adding: “We’ve been working on the back-four all week and then Ricki gets injured, Tam O’Ware has to drop back and that messes about with the midfield.

“But I still thought we competed well and with another five, 10 minutes in the game, we could’ve got another goal.”

Morton must now prepare to face Dunfermline at Cappielow on Saturday and for former Alloa and St Johnstone stopper Doyle the game can’t come soon enough.

He said: “That’s the thing in football, you always get another week to redeem yourself.

“It’s going to take time, but eventually it will click — I can guarantee that.”