MORTON Women manager Gary Forbes admits his young side have learned a valuable lesson after their SWF Championship 4-1 opening day defeat to Renfrewshire rivals St Mirren.

Ton got off to a dream derby day start after 19-year-old Caitlin McKee swept her side ahead inside quarter of an hour.

But their early dominance faded as two Kirstie Ross free kicks either side of half time and a Kelly Lewis goal, followed by a strike by 15-year-old Robin Patrick, saw Kate Cooper’s girls run out comfortable winners at a rain drenched Cappielow.

The Ton chief believes that The Buddies’ experience showed as the occasion of playing the curtain raiser at Cappielow got to some of his players.

He told the Tele: “It was disappointing overall, especially after the pre-season results that we’ve had – including the 10-3 result against the same opposition last week.

“I still thought we created some good chances in the game and we never got the ball down and started playing the way we know how we can.

“It is what it is and St Mirren came here with a game plan and executed it perfectly.

“I think experience ultimately prevailed in the end as the occasion got to a few of our younger players.

“St Mirren totally changed their game plan from last week where they pressed us high and made us work really hard, as opposed to this week where they’d dropped off and let us have the bulk of possession.

“We didn’t deal with that as well as we should’ve and they managed to break up the game very well.

“It was that experience that broke the game up and we weren’t able to manage that the way that we know we can but it’s a learning experience for some of the younger players in the group and we’ll take that as a positive going forward.

“Football’s not always easy and you cant always play the way you want too so we’ll need to manage games better in future.”

Forbes was delighted to see over 100 spectators turn out for the SWF Championship opener on Sinclair Street and hopes that the women’s team can continue to sustain a core following going forward.

He said: “It would be great if we could get a core following us despite the result today.

“Watching us play over the course of the season I’m sure that you won't be disappointed.

“It’s an exciting project that we’ve got going on here with a good blend of young players learning off of some more experienced heads as we look to promote the club’s values of bringing youth players through to the first team.”