MORTON boss Dougie Imrie has threatened to wield the axe after individual mistakes cost his side against league leaders Ayr United.

The Championship's top scorer Dipo Akinyemi and strike partner Mark McKenzie put the Honest Men in control as they held on to all three points despite a late Morton fightback, which saw Robbie Muirhead half the deficit.

The Ton boss was proud of his side's overall performance and believes they could have taken all three points.

However, he insists the defensive lapses can't continue after seeing his side punished by Lee Bullen's men.

He told the Tele: "The second goal is obviously disappointing for us.

"We didn’t get out to the ball and we just allowed people into the box, and it was a cutback and a goal.

"These are things that we have spoken about, but it is individual players that are killing the rest of the team.

"It is individuals not doing their job properly, and it is the same people, so they have been told that if that keeps continuing then they will find themselves out of the team.

"But overall I have to take my hat off to my players.

"They gave everything for the full 90 minutes and on another day we would win that game easily."

Imrie was left to rue a host of missed chances and he believes the cutting edge of Akinyemi made the difference.

He said: "I have to take my hat off to my players.

"I thought over the 90 minutes they thoroughly deserved to win that game, but credit to Ayr.

"When their chances came along, they took them and we only took one of ours.

"I'm bitterly disappointed to lose as I want Cappielow to be a fortress this season and not lose games.

"I thought we could have easily been in at half-time 3-0 up with the chances that we had, but you see the difference.

"The difference Ayr have this season is Akinyemi, who can score goals, he had half a chance and he put it away.

"That is part and parcel of football. If we don’t put the ball in the net we get sucker punched.

"We could have been 3-0 up before Ayr even had a shot on target, but that is football.

"If we don’t put the chances away teams always get an opportunity and they have taken theirs.

"It was the same in the second half, we have had two or three great opportunities, they go up the park and it is a goal, then you have got a mountain to climb.

"It was the same at Raith. We were 2-0 down then we wanted to create a bit more and get players forward.

"On another day we could have easily got a draw out of that, but we just didn’t do enough to put the ball over the line."