CARLO Pignatiello has told his Morton team-mates not to take their place in the first team for granted.

Having started all of the Ton’s previous six games in the Championship this campaign, the former Livingston man dropped to the bench in the weekend defeat to Arbroath.

As Morton prepare to host Ayr United in the SPFL Trust Trophy third round tonight, the utility man knows there's no guarantees in football and he insists every player needs to fight for their place on Dougie Imrie's team sheet.

He told the Tele: "Good players have come into the squad, which is going to help the team in general.

"This can only be a good thing. I dropped out on Saturday and we got beat the game before, so you can’t have any complaints then with Liam Grimshaw coming in.

"We suffered another defeat, so I don’t know what will happen in terms of tonight.

"But Liam is a good player and there is a lot of quality across the rest of the team.

"We have a good squad, so you will probably see that with boys coming in and out.

"Whether I am starting or coming off the bench, I am trying to impress every week because nobody is guaranteed to play games of football.

"Everyone needs to be trying to make an impact on the game."

The 22-year-old admits Morton were well off par against Arbroath.

Pignatiello has stressed they must use tonight's tie against the Honest Men to make amends as they look to avoid a third consecutive home defeat.

He said: "Everybody was disappointed at the weekend, especially with the performance.

"We were poor, we probably got what we deserved and I don’t think we have been like that a lot this season.

"Against Ayr United in the game before we felt as though we played well, but on Saturday we were poor and Arbroath deserved to win it.

"We will be looking to get a result tonight to try and put it right."

Pignatiello says the mood in the Morton camp has been positive since the defeat against the Red Lichties.

He is expecting to face an Ayr United side with a point to prove after losing their unbeaten run to Raith Rovers.

He added: "We spoke about it after the game on Saturday and we all knew that it wasn’t good enough.

"Training this week has been good, everyone has been upbeat.

"It is just about moving on because that is football, you are going to win some and lose some.

"With the game being tonight it is a quicker turnaround, but we will be looking to try and get a good result, but so will Ayr.

"They were flying in the league before they lost on Saturday, so they will want to get back on track as well."