ALAN Lithgow says Morton aren't hitting the panic button after their first home defeat of the league campaign to Ayr United.

The defender believes there were positives to take from the performance and insists all that was missing against the Honest Men was a ruthless streak in front of goal.

Although the likes of Robbie Crawford and Jaze Kabia weren’t able to turn good opportunities into goals, the experienced centre-back insists the fact they were able to work those openings can only be a positive.

Lithgow insists they won't dwell on the disappointment as they now look to bounce back against Queen's Park on Saturday.

He told the Tele: "If we weren’t creating the chances then we would be worried.

"We got the chances but we just never took them on the day.

"They took their chances although we should have defended better at those times.

"The performance is not too much of a worry although we don’t like losing games - to lose one at home isn’t great.

"We want to win as many games at Cappielow as possible. A lot of teams don't like coming here, because we make it horrible. That is all credit to us and how hard we work off the ball as well as on it.

"We started really well, but obviously with the goal we should have defended better.

"It is just far too easy, it happened against Raith Rovers as well. It seems to be when we are getting beat, we are giving teams easy chances to score, so we just need to learn from that and hopefully we can take that out of our game going into the next one."

The defeat saw Morton slip down to sixth place in the Championship table.

The former Livingston man knows it was an opportunity missed in front of their home supporters to move closer to the Championship leaders.

He said: "The gaffer was disappointed with the chances that we gave away and the opportunities we didn't take.

"The manager is the same as us as players, he doesn’t like losing games.

"That was a chance for us to go higher up in the table and get closer to Ayr, and now we are a further three points behind them, so it's disappointing to miss the chance to move closer to them or go above them in the league."

The 34-year-old played 11 minutes against the Honest Men, his third appearance from the bench this season.

After overcoming a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to a knee injury in the summer, Lithgow says he needs to bide his time to cement a regular starting place in the first team again.

He added: "It is always good to get on the park.

"I feel good and I feel fit. I could do as much running as I can off the park, I am not going to get any fitter.

"I need game time, but obviously the boys in my position have been doing really well.

"Darragh [O’Connor] and Jack [Baird] have struck a good partnership, and they have been defending really well, so I just need to be patient and bide my time."