JIM McAlister has revealed how a team meeting after their poor home defeat to Alloa Athletic earlier this month revitalised Morton.

The Ton players were booed off after their 2-1 disappointing defeat to the Wasps at Cappielow, leaving them precariously over the relegation places heading into the final few games.

The club captain says the fans were right to voice their displeasure after their poor performance, but also added that the supporters’ backing in the last two games has been outstanding.

The 33-year-old has been in several relegation battles before, but for the younger players in the squad, McAlister said the fans’ support made a huge difference to their performance levels against Inverness Caley Thistle and Falkirk.

He told the Tele: “After the Alloa game we got together as a squad and had a meeting to get a few things off our chests as players. A lot of stuff was thrown at us after the Alloa game and quite rightly. We looked like we were in a spot of bother but the reaction since then has been pretty impressive and very positive.

“You learn more about how you react from that, you can sink and go under with the club.

“But I have to give huge credit to the fans as well because they knew the Inverness game was massive in terms of our season, and I felt they were excellent.

“Even after we went behind early on in the game, they didn’t get on the players’ backs and encouraged everyone and it showed in our performance.

“We performed well and reacted well and the fans definitely played their part. Nobody likes being criticised at their work, and ultimately nobody is going out to do any harm or purposely perform badly.

“There’s a lot of younger players in our squad who could benefit greatly from the support, you’ve seen the likes of Reece Lyon putting in a great performance against Inverness, Greg Kiltie gets another goal and Charlie Telfer performs as well.

“You can see everyone having confidence from that game and carrying it onto the Falkirk game.”

The Ton moved up to seventh with their victory over Falkirk at the weekend in a high-pressure clash.

McAlister believes Morton got their tactics spot-on against the Bairns and says they need to put in a similar level of display against Dunfermline on Saturday.

He added: “Falkirk couldn’t have had any arguments if it was 4-0, it was that comfortable. We had chance after chance in the first half and to score right after half-time was perfect for us.

“We had our game plan against Falkirk and you could see after 20 minutes it was working, the amount of space our players were having going forward was ridiculous and thankfully we capitalised on that.

“We knew exactly what they were going to do, Reghan Tumilty and Jack Iredale were getting loads of space because we knew their midfielders wouldn’t want to go out and close them down.

“Scoring the two goals after half-time the game was dead after that, we were very comfortable.

“It’s hugely important we don’t slack off after last weekend’s game because nothing has been achieved yet.”