MORTON boss Dougie Imrie has warned his side they could face 'a wounded animal' in the form of league leaders Dundee United tomorrow.

United have just lost two cup ties in  row to League One opposition and will be under pressure to bite back.

But Imrie insists Jim Goodwin’s men won’t have it easy on Sinclair Street.

The Ton boss says his side should take confidence from their draw at Tannadice back in September, as they look to close the gap at the bottom of the table.

Imrie told the Tele: “Dundee United, and I’d go as far to say Raith Rovers too, have been fantastic this season in terms of picking up points consistently.

“They’re the only two teams in the league that you can say have done really well.

“But we’ve shown that we can go toe to toe with them. At Dundee United we drew but in my opinion we should’ve won the game.

“We had a great chance in the last few minutes when Robbie Muirhead and Cammy Blues were in a two-on-one situation. Robbie chose the wrong option instead of playing Bluesy in on goal, who I'd have backed to score.

“Then in the two games against Raith we’ve been really close.

“In those three games against the top two we’ve not been overran or looked as if we were in for a hiding.

“Tomorrow is a good opportunity for us to go and see where we’re at after the last few weeks.

"We’ve had two varying levels of opposition and have beaten Bo’ness, whereas Dundee United have lost twice to League One opposition.

“If we can apply ourselves and play the way we know we can, we can be more than a match for Dundee United and hopefully get a good result.

“But we know we could well be facing a wounded animal and need to give them the respect they’re due as they’re unbeaten in the league.

“But if we can play to our maximum then it’ll be a tough afternoon for them.”

Imrie feels the last few weeks have shown that the tide is slowly turning for his team after a very difficult start to the season.

He believes that their performances in defeat against Partick and Airdrie, coupled with the win in the cup last week, show that things are improving.

He added: “I’d include the Partick game, even though we lost, as one of our better performances of the season.

“I don't think we deserved to lose after playing well, then against Airdrie it was penalties and they are a lottery. We'd have won convincingly if we’d just taken our chances.

“Things are starting to come together and with no disrespect to Bo’ness we scored four goals and it could’ve been more if we'd had our shooting boots on.

“We want to continue that this weekend against the league leaders and take our chances when they come along.”