MORTON manager Gus MacPherson has admitted his game plan against Arbroath was 'thrown out the window' following Sean McGinty's red card.

The Ton skipper was given his marching orders midway through the second half for a reckless challenge on winger Scott Stewart.

MacPherson had no complaints with the decision and was frustrated his side couldn't break down the Red Lichties, with his side now facing the relegation play-offs to retain their place in the Championship.

He told the Tele: “It’s not disappointing, it’s a frustrating way to have finished off the campaign with us now having to go through the play-off campaign.

“It was there for us and we haven’t taken it.

“All we really had was a couple of half chances, that’s all it was.

“Arbroath have got good defenders who can defend well and their team are full of good, solid professionals.

“To top that off they’ve got a very good record at Gayfield too.

“We were in control of things again but we couldn’t break them down and we couldn’t get that goal that was so important and in hindsight would’ve seen us safe.

“It was the same old story of the last eight games. We’ve done the hard work, it’s just the final piece of the jigsaw that’s missing yet again.

“When we want to make changes and really go a little bit more gung-ho, we can't do it because we’re reduced to 10 men.

“I’ve got no complaints about the decision to send Sean McGinty off, it was a red card and there’s no two ways about it - it’s thrown the game plan out the window.

“I can't question the commitment of the players at all. They work hard and they give their all every game and they did that again on Friday night.

“It’s been there all season and it’s the least that we expect of them from here.”

The Ton boss is adamant that Ton will be well prepared for whoever they face in the play-off campaign.

He revealed that he and his management team have spent weeks watching potential play-off contenders.

MacPherson said: “League One is so tight so we don’t know who we’ll be playing just yet.

“We’ve been covering games for the last couple of weeks to get a scope of the teams that we could be coming up against.

“We’ve had games covered this weekend as well.

“We’ll be well prepared for whoever we come up against, we’ll have done our homework.

“All we can do now is prepare.”