MORTON started the second quarter of their league season in an identical manner to how they kicked off the campaign.

Just as they had on the opening day at Somerset Park, Jim Duffy’s men succumbed to a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Ayr United.

There were mitigating factors for that original failure, with a new-look Ton side still in its infancy and getting to know each other as a group.

Declan McManus, for instance, was thrown straight into the starting line-up after just one training session due to injuries to forwards Andy Barrowman and Stefan McCluskey.

And they looked set to take at least a point from the meeting until left-back Jordan Allan saw red for a reckless tackle.

Those circumstances did not apply on Saturday. This loss was more disappointing coming as it did 10 weeks on and at Cappielow, where Morton had had a 100 per cent record coming into the fixture.

That included last weekend’s 2-0 win over Stirling Albion, from which Duffy made just one enforced change to his starting line-up.

Continuing with the narrow midfield diamond used against the Binos, Robbie Crawford replaced the injured Stefan McCluskey at the apex.

After a low-key first 17 minutes, Jon Paul McGovern attempted to light up the game with an audacious free-kick from 45 yards.

The former Celtic and Sheffield Wednesday man tried to catch out Derek Gaston with a quickly taken chip that landed on the roof of the net and had the goalkeeper backpedalling frantically.

Morton responded with a route-one attack that caught out a flat-footed Ayr back four but which they failed to make count.

Stefan Milojevic sent McManus scampering after a hopeful ball in behind, and the Aberdeen loanee did well to stretch and stab the ball on to his strike partner ahead of a recovering defender.

Barrowman attempted to sweep the ball under David Hutton with his left foot, but the ex-Ton keeper had charged off his line to block.

It was a crucial save. Had Barrowman found the net, the afternoon would likely have taken a very different course.

Gaston, too, produced a fine stop to keep the scores level, diving to his left to push clear Craig Beattie’s low curler after Scott McLaughlin was allowed to waltz around freely in the Ton box.

The save, made on 23 minutes, was particularly impressive as Gaston appeared to be unsighted when the former Scotland cap pulled the trigger.

A recurring problem for this young Morton team has been a lack of leadership on the park, and as a consequence the absence of clear communication.

This was all too evident when Reece Hands charged onto a dropping ball without putting a name on it and volleyed Crawford as he attempted to control, oblivious to his team-mate’s intention.

Shortly after that mix-up, Crawford was presented with an opportunity to open the scoring when Conor Pepper’s intelligent flick-on left him with a clear shot at goal.

Positioned at an angle deep inside the box, the Rangers loanee lacked composure as he blazed wildly over the top.

Opportunities were at a premium, however, and Duffy elected to tweak his midfield by pushing Crawford out to the left while moving Hands inside to the central role.

But no sooner had the switch been made than Ton fell behind to a poor goal scored by who else but that man McLaughlin.

A simple diagonal ball by McGovern found Michael Donald in an advanced position out on the left on 36 minutes, and the wideman volleyed a first-time cross into the danger area.

Ayr No9 Ryan Donnelly made a near-post run in an attempt to connect with the ball, and the distraction was enough to prevent Gaston from grasping cleanly.

McLaughlin slammed home the loose ball and celebrated gleefully, taking full advantage of the opportunity to rub it in to the Ton support, with whom he is incredibly unpopular.

Thereafter, the hosts had one final chance to go in at the break on level terms, but Barrowman elected to dummy after McManus’s cross broke kindly for him inside the box.

It seems safe to assume the hitman received a shout to leave it from a team-mate, as he was primed to shoot in a promising position.

Nevertheless, one might well have expected him, as an instinctive striker with a nose for goal, to have ignored any such call and took the shot.

When the largely lacklustre first half came to its conclusion two minutes later, it was greeted by a smattering of boos from the unimpressed home support.

The start to the second half didn’t offer immediate signs of a revival, with Donald clipping the roof of Gaston’s net with a pinged, pitching wedge effort from the left corner of the box.

In last month’s match against Stenhousemuir, Morton were stirred into life by a sense of injustice created by a series of baffling refereeing decisions.

On Saturday, whistler Calum Murray’s failure to caution former Celtic wild child Paul Slane for kicking out at Crawford in frustration was inexcusable.

Slane, who had a spell on trial at the Ton under Kenny Shiels, should have seen a card and had lost his discipline to such an extent that manager Mark Roberts subbed him off for his own good.

But the hosts were still fortunate not to fall further behind twice more before managing to muster some sustained offense.

On 58 minutes, sponsors’ man of the match Thomas O’Ware got his body between a Beattie close-range drive, which seemed destined for the back of the net, and the goal.

Then, two minutes later, the former Celtic and Swansea striker managed to put the ball past Gaston but saw his header ruled out for offside.

It was at this juncture that Ton finally started to put some pressure on the visitors, with right-back Lee Kilday whipping over an inviting centre that Barrowman came within a whisker of converting.

The hosts’ search for an equaliser was largely disjointed, though, and they failed to pose the experienced Ayr back four any real problems.

A move to a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Mark Russell switched out to the right wing as an inverted wideman, failed to have the desired effect.And despite Barrowman’s struggle to beat towering centre-halves Peter Murphy or Martyn Campbell in the air, Ton continued to pump long balls up to the No9 without reward.

Beside him, McManus has been off the boil of late. Some of the sparkle that saw him score eights goals in nine starts seems dulled.

Yet, on the one occasion Ton really threatened to level the score, it was McManus who saw his placed-effort superbly headed off the line by another old boy in Ayr left-back Kevin McKinlay.

Pocket dynamo Jon Scullion did threaten to inject some life into proceedings as the game wore on, but he failed to properly connect with a volley while promisingly placed on 79 minutes.

His stinging left-footed drive four minutes later packed more punch. Unfortunately, it was straight down Hutton’s throat.

In the end an experienced Ayr team, which included five players in their thirties and with an average age of 28, were wily enough to hold out for the win without ever impressing themselves.

By comparison, the young Ton starting XI had an average age of 22 with no players in their thirties, and it showed over the piece.

It was an inept showing from the Cappielow men and they will need a significant improvement when they travel to Fife to face Dunfermline next weekend.