DOUGIE Imrie has told his players to cut out the errors which cost Morton three valuable points at Stark's Park on Saturday.

Ton comfortably kept Raith Rovers at bay for the opening 45 minutes before Liam Dick put the hosts in front six minutes after the restart and Aidan Connolly's strike gave the visitors a mountain to climb in 66 minutes.

Imrie believes his men did enough to deserve a point but says defensive lapses cost them their unbeaten start to the league campaign.

He told the Tele: "Up until they scored I don’t think there was much in the game.

"We defended really well, but if you make two, three and four mistakes you are inevitably going to concede goals and that is the disappointing thing.

"I think so far this season, we have been really good and haven't conceded much to opposition.

"But the way we conceded the goals on Saturday was really poor on our part.

"I don’t think a point would have been a disgrace. In the first half it was pretty even for both teams, although we made their 'keeper work a lot more than they made Brian Schwake.

"The things we spoke about at half-time is how we conceded our goals with people just not doing their job properly."

The 39-year-old was left frustrated that his side couldn’t kick on from being right in the game in the first half before ultimately leaving themselves with an uphill task of trying to claw back a two-goal deficit.

Imrie said: "In the first half I thought we did really well.

"We controlled parts of the game and obviously Raith had parts of the game as well.

"In the second half we didn’t give ourselves a chance, especially with the two goals we conceded.

"At 2-0 down we had to try and go for it, and I thought we did that. It was a great header from Cameron Blues from the free-kick, but it was probably the first real quality ball we put into the box.

"That gives us a little bit of impetus, and we put them under a bit of pressure, and on another day, with some better balls into the box and just that final bit, the quality that we are looking for, we maybe would have sneaked a draw.

"I think we would have deserved a draw on the first 60 minutes before they scored, but take nothing away from Raith Rovers. When they got their opportunities, they took them well."

One positive Imrie took from Saturday's defeat was the return to fitness of defender Alan Lithgow, who made an appearance off the bench for the second game running, as he edges closer to match sharpness after recovering from a knee injury at the back end of last season.

He added: "Alan is trying to get up to match fitness.

"He is training away week-in, week-out, so he is getting closer.

"Whether he starts the next game or not we will wait and see how we are going to set up against Dundee.

"But Alan is getting back fitter and stronger every week, so it is good to have him back in contention of starting a game."