MORTON manager Jonatan Johansson says his players didn’t heed his pre-match warnings and paid the price for letting their standards slip against part-time Alloa 
Athletic.

The Ton were looking for their third win in a row after putting in strong displays against Queen of the South and Partick Thistle.

But Jim Goodwin’s side were deserved winners, coming away with a 2-0 victory on Saturday at Cappielow thanks to goals from Alan Trouten and Iain Flannigan.

It lifted the Wasps out of the relegation play-off spot, while Morton dropped to fifth place in the table.

Johansson told his players before the game that they couldn’t afford to allow their performance levels to drop following their impressive back-to-back wins over the Doonhamers and the Jags — and warned them that the Wasps would be difficult to break down. 

The Morton boss believes his players fell well short of the standards he expects.

He told the Tele: “I’m very disappointed, not just about the result but the performance was as well.”

“We knew they were going to be organised. 

“We talked about it all week, that nothing could change in our workrate, our pressing and our defending whoever we play against — and that wasn’t there on Saturday. 

“I felt that was obvious. 

“We tried to shake it up after half-time but it got worse and I was very disappointed about the manner in which we gave away the goals. We gave the opponents penalties, and for a team that hasn’t been scoring that many goals it’s like giving them a free hit.”

Morton struggled to get going at the weekend and were finding it difficult to put passes together throughout the park. 

Johansson tried to change the formation late on several times as the hosts attempted to salvage something from the game, but it proved to have little impact on the final result.

He added: “In possession we looked nervous again.

“They shaped up and let our centre-halves have it a bit and the passing was very poor from our team.

“People start getting nervous and start kicking it longer and were out of position, it was disappointing.

“I thought about changing the formation. Sometimes if you’re not pressing the ball enough, if you’re not moving enough and if you’re not winning the 50/50s enough it doesn’t really matter what formation you’re putting out.

“We tried to go 4-4-2 and put some wingers on the pitch and unfortunately that didn’t work 
out either.”