GUS MacPherson has challenged his Morton players to stand up and be counted as they aim to ease the pressure with a win against Queen of the South.

Ton travel to Dumfries looking for their first three points since August and he has urged his players to produce a reaction to last Saturday's disappointing performance against Inverness Caley Thistle.

The Morton manager believes they can make a statement of intent by starting the second quarter of the league campaign with a victory against the Doonhamers.

He told the Tele: “When you’re on the end of a poor defeat the most important thing is to focus on the next game and to make sure that there is a reaction to that.

“We’re going into the first game of the second quarter.

"It’ll be a tough game - but we know that we need to put in a better performance than we did up at Inverness.

“It’s a very difficult place to go as Queen of the South have a very good home record.

"But we can make a statement by going down there and kicking off the second quarter with a victory.

“We’re not going down there under any illusions that it won't be a tough game, but that’s the Championship.

“You risk sounding repetitive but that’s just the way things are.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re positive.

"We’ll make changes and hopefully that mean’s we can get a result.

“In the first 10 games we’ve had six away games and four at home and that’s been frustrating.

“It’s been a very fine line between being beaten and taking something from the game with the exception of Firhill and maybe last week against Inverness - but even then we created chances.

“At home we’ve not picked up the points that we feel we’ve deserved so now is the time to react to that."

Morton fans made their feelings known during last Saturday's defeat at the Caledonian Stadium.

MacPherson says he understands and shares the Cappielow supporters' frustrations.

But he has belief in his players that they can put things right and has urged them to become harder to beat.

He said: “I can understand the fans' frustrations.

"That’s just part in parcel in football, especially when the chips are down.

“It’s the nature of the game when you lose a goal in the manner we did in the first half and then in the timing of the second half against Inverness.

“Teams in these situations are not having to work for their goals, it’s not too difficult to score against us like that.

“I’ve listened to other managers who are having a tough time and are frustrated.

“If we can cut out the individual errors then we give ourselves a far better chance.”