MORTON captain Jim McAlister said his side lacked desire and fight in their defeat to Alloa Athletic on Saturday and admitted they were too complacent.

The Ton looked to have turned a corner following their heavy defeat to Ross County last month, after picking up two wins against Queen of the South and Partick Thistle.

But a 2-0 loss to part-time outfit Alloa was another backwards step for Jonatan Johansson’s side, especially with it being a home tie they were expected to win.

The Ton skipper was frustrated after the game, admitting the visitors deserved to leave with all three points  and said the blame lay firmly with the Morton players rather than their manager Johansson.

He told the Tele: “We never got going, we had spoken all week about how our biggest downfall would be getting complacent on the back of two good results and everyone expecting us to make it three wins on the bounce.

“We knew before the game they’re a well-organised team. They showed that and fair play to them, they executed that well.

“We spoke about being complacent all this week and Alloa fighting for their lives down lower in the table and you know how these teams will come and play.

“It all comes down to hunger and desire and about doing all the things that should come for free from a player.

“You need to run harder than your opponent and win your individual battles and we didn’t do that.

“We can’t go from losing 5-1, to winning two games to losing 2-0 at home.

“It’s not good enough and something outwith the manager, it’s something we as a team need to look at.

“The manager does his job at training and it’s our job to carry it out on the pitch.”

Morton faced a tough game against the Clackmannanshire side earlier in the season, when two Chris Millar goals were the difference back in August.

But on Saturday they were unable to grind out a result, and McAlister said his side didn’t do the basics well enough.

He added: “You could see that was their game plan. You could see that they analysed us off the back of the last couple of times when we’ve been positive and on the front foot and they’ve come with a game plan.

“From our point of view we should be playing with a higher tempo, we should be moving the ball quicker and we didn’t do that and ultimately got what we deserved.”

The midfielder had Morton’s best chance of the game to score in the first half, when he was played in by Gregor Buchanan.

The 32-year-old was one-on-one with goalkeeper Neil Parry, but was unable to find his way past the shotstopper, who got down well to block the attempt.

He said: “I probably had too much time, it was one of those ones if you mis-hit it, it probably goes in.

“I caught it flush and the goalie made a save, but that’s football.

“It was probably the only chance we created, it was our only clear-cut chance we created and it was clear as the game went on Alloa thoroughly deserved the three points.”