MORTON boss Dougie Imrie admitted his side gifted five goals to league leaders Partick Thistle after watching them suffer their heaviest defeat of the campaign.

The visitors failed to build on their positive start which saw Robbie Muirhead open the scoring with a spectacular free-kick.

Imrie says the Jags didn't have to work for their goals and he could have no complaints with the outcome as Ton fell to their third defeat on the spin in the league.

He told the Tele: "If you don’t defend properly then you will concede goals.

"For the first 25 minutes we did well and Robbie scored a fantastic free-kick.

"Then you are just asking them to take a breather and relax for five or 10 minutes, but the goal we conceded from Brian Graham to make it 1-1 is just really poor defending on our part.

"It is a two v two out on the wing and they don’t talk or communicate to take the runner and it is just a ball sent up into the middle of the box and Brian gets above Darragh O’Connor and it goes under Brian Schwake. Brian has got to do better, he knows that.

"This season up until Saturday, we had been doing really well at set pieces and balls into our box, but when you are missing the likes of Alan Lithgow and Jack Baird it becomes difficult.

"We had Darragh who is natural centre back in there to defend.

"Even in the second half we came out, did really well for the first five or 10 minutes, then the goal we concede again is just an aimless ball to the back stick, header down and no-one is picking up then it is a third goal.

"To be fair Partick didn’t really need to work for their goals, which was disappointing, and that is what I said to the boys after the game.

"But credit to Partick and Ian McCall and his staff, they deserved their win.

"I’m not going to take that away from them, but on our part, we could have done better to not concede the goals the way we did."

The 39-year-old believes the task on the day was made more difficult by the loss of centre-back pairing Alan Lithgow and Jack Baird through injury and suspension.

Imrie said: "We lost Alan and Jack who are natural centre-backs. You are asking Carlo Pignatiello and Lewis Strapp, two younger kids, to come in and play at centre back, and it is not their natural position, but they have got to learn from that, especially Carlo.

"He just came in this season to play at a lot higher level than he has been used to, so he need to adapt, and quick.

"But I have no qualms, I thought we played not bad, but just the way we lost the goals was the disappointing thing for myself as a manager.

"If you can’t defend then you are going to lose goals, it is basics, it is not anything we need to work on.

"I could knock one hundred balls into the box and defend them, but when it comes to a Saturday, that is when it matters, you need to defend.

"You need to put your body on the line, and for me we have given Partick five goals that they didn’t need to work hard for."