MORTON vice-captain Alan Lithgow believes he's put his knee injury ordeal behind him as he aims to make his first start in four months when Dundee visit Cappielow.

The central defender missed out on pre-season training having suffered a tear in his patellar tendon at the end of last term.

After months of recovery Lithgow came off the bench in Morton's 1-0 win over Cove Rangers and Saturday's defeat at Stark's Park.

And today the 34-year-old has handed manager Dougie Imrie a selection boost by declaring himself fit to play from the start against the league leaders on Saturday.

He told the Tele: "I feel okay. It has been frustrating for myself.

"Obviously nobody likes being injured, but I can just train away and build up my fitness that way.

"But I need game time as well, so it was good to get the minutes in against Raith and Cove.

"I feel as if I could be in contention just now, but the boys in the positions are doing well, so obviously I can’t say too much about that.

"It is up to the gaffer when he sees me as fit to put me back in."

The former Livingston man admits the weekend’s defeat to Ian Murray’s side was tough to take and he feels Morton did enough to secure a draw at Stark’s Park.

Lithgow said: "We had chances and maybe could have taken something from the game. We gave away cheap goals, but in terms of the game there wasn’t much in it to be honest.

"We created more chances than Raith. If you look at the second half, we did enough to deserve something out of the game."

Aidan Connolly and Liam Dick punished Ton's defensive lapses as Raith Rovers went on to secure their first league victory of the season on Saturday.

Lithgow says the squad have gone over the footage from the 2-1 defeat and he has warned they can't afford a repeat of the defensive mistakes when Dundee come calling.

He said: "The second one is a good finish, but we should still be close enough to him [Connolly] in the box.

"We can’t let players like that have that amount of time to take a touch or hit it first time in the box.

"These fine margins is what it is all about in football, we just need to take chances when we get them. They took theirs and we didn’t.

"The gaffer was disappointed. We discuss the mistakes that we make and do video analysis on a Monday.

"We go over the goals, but then we learn from them, and we move on to the next game."

With Morton experiencing a draw, win and defeat in their opening three games, Lithgow knows how unpredictable the Championship can be and he believes Scotland's second tier will continue to produce some surprising results.

He added: "Everybody knows what this league is like.

"If you look at some of the results already this year, it is surprising, but that will be the case the whole season.

"Whoever puts a run of games together will find themselves up the top end of the table."