Grant Gillespie assesses Morton defeat to Linlithgow Rose

As captain, Gillespie is often charged with speaking up in the aftermath of a bad defeat.

As always, he refused to shy away from the frustration felt by everyone inside the dressing room at Cappielow — delivering a frank and honest assessment.

The 34-year-old is adamant that things have to improve — and quickly.

The Ton were second best for long periods against a team playing in the fifth tier of Scottish football.

Having only contested one friendly match in preparation for competitive action, that rustiness was on full display as they suffered a hugely disappointing result.

Grant Gillespie says Morton have to take their medicine and improve quickly if they're to avoid a second successive League Cup group stage defeat. (Image: Gary Bradley)

“Obviously it’s not the way we wanted to start the League Cup campaign,” Gillespie said.

“First and foremost, credit to Linlithgow — they were excellent for the full 90 minutes.

“From our point of view, it’s disappointing. There were aspects of the game that I thought we did quite well, but there were also large parts that we need to tidy up.

“It’s only our second competitive game of the season, so we’re still trying to get up to speed, but that’s no excuse.

Morton's hopes of making it through the League Cup group stage are already hanging by a thread just 90 minutes into the campaign. (Image: Gary Bradley)

“At the end of the day, it’s a competitive game and we’ve got to have that in our mindset.

“You could see their desire. They kept going, they put the ball in the back of the net and unfortunately, we came up short.

“We have to take our medicine, but we need to put it to bed as quickly as possible because we’ve got another tough game on Tuesday.”

The home supporters made their feelings known at full-time, booing the disappointed Morton players as they left the field.

Gillespie admits he fully understands the frustrations of the fans, but hopes they can make amends in the coming weeks.

“I’m not going to say the fans are overreacting because, at the end of the day, we lost the game,” he added.

“Linlithgow, they probably deserve to be in the league above after the season they had last year — they’re no mugs.

“But ultimately, we’re three leagues above them, so we should be better and we should be winning the game.

“Within the 90 minutes, though, we didn’t do enough. We need to learn from it and be better on Tuesday.

Grant Gillespie delivered a frank assessment of Morton's performance against Linlithgow. (Image: Gary Bradley)

“The only positive is that we don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it. It’s a quick turnaround and it gives us the chance to put right what went wrong on Saturday.”

Looking ahead to tonight’s clash at Bayview, Gillespie is anticipating a physical battle.

The midfielder enjoyed battles with East Fife boss Dick Campbell’s Arbroath side during his time at Gayfield.

He expects the Fifers to approach things in a similar manner, stressing the Ton players need to be up for the fight.

Grant Gillespie delivered a frank assessment of Morton's performance against Linlithgow. (Image: Gary Bradley)

“His Arbroath side were renowned for being really physical and really tough to play against, so I’m expecting his East Fife team to be exactly the same,” Gillespie said.

“Obviously, we went there a couple of seasons ago in the first game of this cup and lost 3-0, so the boys have to remember that and use it as fuel.

“We know it’ll be a tough place to go. They’ll be well organised, they’ll be tough to break down, and we have to be ready for another difficult game because that’s exactly what it’s going to be.”