MORTON manager Jim Duffy admits his side have to accept the criticism that will come their way for their poor performance against Queen of the South.

The Dumfries side ran out 1-0 winners at Cappielow on Saturday, with Lyndon Dykes scoring the only goal of the game midway through the second half.

The loss leaves the Greenock side five points behind Dundee United and Dunfermline. 

One more win from the pair’s remaining fixtures will be enough to ensure they finish above Morton this season, and as a result Ton look certain to miss out on the play-offs this year.

Morton have been hampered with a number injuries in recent weeks. 

Luca Gasparotto, Gary Oliver, Derek Gaston and Michael Tidser were sidelined at the weekend, as well as long-term absentees Jai Quitongo, Ross Forbes, Lewis Strapp and Jamie McGowan.

But the manager was keen not to make excuses, saying the players selected were still more than capable of getting a result.

Duffy said: “I’m not going to make excuses, because I think if you start to make excuses players will start to take them.

“We had enough players on the pitch who were more than good enough and can play a lot better. 

“That’s the bottom line – we can play a lot better than that.

“We normally play with a lot higher intensity, a higher energy and that wasn’t evident.

“If you give it everything then fair enough, Queens have got some real quality in their team, but that wasn’t the case.

“I’m more disappointed with the players, because people will always mention the times that you didn’t play well rather than the times that you did play well, and Saturday was one of those days.

“We have to accept the criticism, we deserve it as we didn’t perform and Queens were better.”

While Morton had several chances to test Doonhamers’ goalkeeper Alan Martin, they couldn’t take them.

And Duffy believes Ton didn’t do enough up front to threaten Queens.

Duffy added: “We had a couple of chances, obviously the keeper kicks one off Bob McHugh, he rounds the keeper and tries to play John Baird in, and the defender got back really well, and Gary Harkins had one in the first half as well.

“But Queens hit the post a couple of times and Conor Brennan’s made a couple of good saves so we can’t argue.

“Over the balance of play Queens were a bit sharper than we were in most departments.

“Defensively, generally we were okay, but going forward we just didn’t look sharp enough, and we needed a real performance and unfortunately we didn’t get that.”