DISAPPOINTED Morton boss Jim Duffy blasted his players for putting in what he felt was their poorest performance since he took charge of the club in Saturday’s opening-day defeat at Ayr United.

After back-to-back cup wins over Spartans and Berwick Rangers, the Cappielow club suffered a losing start to their League One campaign at Somerset Park.

Duffy was at a loss to explain the lacklustre display but admitted his side got exactly what they deserved from the game.

He said: “First half we weren’t at the races and Ayr United totally dominated it. We had a chance in the first five minutes, but other than that Ayr were in control of the game.

“We raised the tempo in the second half and started a lot better and had a couple of opportunities to score.

“The sending off was pivotal but, to be honest, just before the red card was the only spell that we actually looked comfortable and had a bit of a grip on the game.

“We looked a wee bit better at that point but still not anywhere near the level we would hope to be at.

“With the red card, I genuinely don’t think he intended to go over the ball — but he did go over the ball. If you go lunging in like that in the modern-day game then it’s a red card.

“You let him know he let his team-mates down. Every player is tired at that time and they’ve got to try and give a bit more when they’ve not got a lot left in the tank. You can call it impetuous or whatever you like, but at the end of the day it’s a red card and puts us on the back foot and allows Ayr to get a bit of width and stretch the game, without playing well. I can’t remember them having too many opportunities and thought we looked pretty solid defensively, but it was a poor goal to lose.

“Ryan Donnelly is a penalty box striker and he took it really well. From our point of view he was in between two defenders and that was poor.

“The sending off makes it difficult but nevertheless I felt it was a poor performance in general and we didn’t deserve any more than what we got.

“We were second to most of the balls today. In the games we have played before today, the one thing we have been is very competitive.

“It was really only our organisation that kept us in the game today, because we hardly passed it. The decision making was poor – just about everything you need to win a game was missing.

“We had seven or eight players off form, and we would have had to make about five or six substitutions to turn that performance around.

“So I’m bitterly disappointed. I just didn’t think it was good enough. It was the poorest we’ve played, including all of our pre-season games or the cup games.

“Credit to Ayr United. They were strong, organised and played well. But I can only look at it from Morton’s point of view, and we definitely underperformed.”