MORTON gaffer Gus MacPherson has shrugged off Hamilton Accies' injury time complaint after Gozie Ugwu's 97th-minute header rescued his side a valuable point.

Accies boss Stuart Taylor was left fuming when Ton found an equaliser seven minutes into added time after it was suggested that only five would be added.

But the Ton manager believes that referee Steven Reid was correct to play that length as the visitors' time wasting throughout the second half came back to haunt them.

MacPherson says they deserved at least a point from their second-half display and hailed the impact of his substitutions.

He told the Tele: “I think we certainly deserved at least a point, considering what we put into the second half with the changes we made and then throwing the kitchen sink at it.

“There’s no question of the referee adding that amount of injury time on at the end of the game.

“I’d said to the linesman that you couldn’t just add time on for substitutions or injuries because you see it go missed so often.

“Hamilton will probably complain about it and feel aggrieved - I probably would myself if I was in that situation - but there was clearly no question about time needing to be added on.

“You can’t be as obvious in what they were trying to do in wasting time and it’s come back to bite them.

“We said it to the group after full-time, the starting 11 aren't the most important ones in this, it’s the substitutes who come on.

“You always hope that they come on to have an impact, but I think we can all safely say that they did just that.

“That’s what this season is, it’s a challenge to the players.

“But when you watch that kind of performance, with the way that we finished after being a little bit edgy, you can be pleased with the character shown.

“We need to start games in the way that we finished that one.”

MacPherson insists that his side have been unlucky to draw blanks in recent weeks, with goalless draws against Queen of the South and Partick Thistle.

He says he feared that it was going to be one of those days but praised his side for rising to the challenge to securing a late point.

He added: “We hadn't scored in five games in the build-up to this but we’ve been creating chances.

"We’ve had near misses and we’ve had things cleared off the line on Tuesday and on Saturday.

“When you’ve got the ball bouncing about at a set piece which is then blocked, you’re sitting thinking that 'it’s going to be one of those days', but all credit to them as they kept pushing.

“They’re growing as a group and there have been challenges, but they’re rising to those challenges and it’s refreshing to see a group growing in strength in front of your eyes.”