GARY Naysmith admits the better team won on Saturday after a poor first-half performance from his side cost them in a 1-0 defeat to Morton at Cappielow.

Naysmith reckons his team were second best on Christmas Eve and he was frustrated with the way they conceded the Thomas O’Ware header — because it was a sloppy defensive showing.

He said: “I think we lost the game in the first half. I’ve not got any complaints about the second-half performance or effort, and on another day Dobbs [Stephen Dobbie] could have scored.

“But it was the first half we were off it, I thought they caused us a lot of problems down the left-hand side in the first half and I thought in general their strikers dictated the play to our centre halves.

“If you’re being blunt, Higgy [Chris Higgins] gave away a free-kick just before they scored in the same area and we got away with it. But we gave away another one and Ross Forbes has the best delivery in the league. It’s a free header and that’s how you’ve lost the game, really.

“We’ve gave away a bad goal, a foul we didn’t need to make and we’ve lost a man at the set-piece. That’s why we’ve lost the game and it’s the small margins that are costing us just now.” 

Queens were denied an equaliser by referee Barry Cook after Derek Lyle appeared to handle the ball in the build-up to Dobbie’s finish, but Naysmith refused to stick the boot in.

He said: “I’m not going to have sour grapes going on about it.

"The referee and the linesman between them, one said it was handball and the other said it was offside.

"The problem is, you're asking me to comment on something I've got three different people's opinions on."