MORTON boss Dougie Imrie says that claiming three vital points was all that matters after his side scraped past Raith Rovers to keep their play-off dreams alive.

Ton saw off their Kirkcaldy counterparts thanks to Alexander King’s superb header inside just 87 seconds but they failed to build on a scintillating opening 10 minutes.

Whilst Imrie was left frustrated with his side's showing against Ian Murray’s men he was pleased they have kept themselves firmly in the hunt for the Premiership play-offs.

He told the Tele: “I'm happy with the three points, certainly.

“But am I happy with the performance? No, definitely not.

“I thought that for the first 20 minutes we were very good but then after that we were nowhere near it.

“Even in the second half we couldn’t get going at all but listen, the most important thing for us was to pick up three points and keep ourselves in and around it.

“We move onto next week now which is a massive game for us against Queen's Park. The most important thing today was to get those three points.

“We could’ve had another one or two goals to add to what we had if we’d have picked the right passes but I need to praise the boys, they defended brilliantly today.

"Credit to them, especially after not playing well and managing to pick up a clean sheet.

“We’re still within a great chance to get into the play-offs with two games to play. But we’ll need to win them both if we want to do that.

“We’re at home to Queen's Park a team who’ve done well all season and are fighting for the title. I watched them on Friday night against Ayr and there wasn’t a lot in it, so we’re looking forward to seeing what happens when they come here."

Imrie was left delighted by the response of Alexander King, who bounced back from his criticism of him after last week's late collapse at Dundee.

He said: “It was the perfect response from the wee man after I gave him a tough time last week.

“But that's the learning curve for him and it’s the perfect way to come back to a manager after getting a bit of a roasting.

“I said that to him and had a wee chuckle to myself, but I’m delighted for him because he’s a top talent."

Imrie praised his defensive duo Jack Baird and Darragh O’Connor for keeping their 10th clean sheet of the season.

He believes that stand-in skipper Baird was 'colossal' in the way he went about his business.

He said: “Jack and Darragh have been tremendous all season for us.

“Jack got booked early on and had to manage the game well from there and he did. I thought he and Darragh were colossal in dealing with everything thrown at them.

“But I thought we were a wee bit lethargic. But pressure counts and has that effect on you which we obviously have by needing to win all our games if we want to get into those play offs.”