GREG Kiltie believes some ‘home truths’ had to be said after Morton were heavily beaten by Partick Thistle at the weekend.

The Ton were defeated 3-0 by the Jags as the Maryhill side closed the gap between the teams at the bottom of the table.

The Cappielow outfit bounced back with a 1-1 draw away to Ayr United on Tuesday, with Kiltie grabbing the equaliser.

Ton now face two big games against Queen of the South and Alloa Athletic, teams just below Jonatan Johansson’s side in the Championship, as they bid to avoid relegation.

But after putting in an improved display against the Honest Men earlier this week, Kilmarnock loanee Kiltie says his side showed how well they are capable of playing.

Kiltie told the Tele: “We’ve got a lot of characters in the dressing room and you know they are not going to be happy after the way we played on Saturday and the way things went.

“So it was important to come out and get a reaction and we did have a positive

one.

“There were a few home truths that needed to be said. It’s obviously getting to that time of the season where you don’t want to be looking down, you want to be looking up.

“If that’s what we want to do then we need to put on better performances than Saturday, as it was no where near good enough.

“We knew that and didn’t need to be told that but I thought against Ayr we came out and showed what we are about.”

Kiltie has now made eight appearances for the Ton since joining the club on loan in January.

Tuesday’s strike was his second goal after netting his first in almost three years against Falkirk last month.

The 22-year-old admits it’s great to be back playing regularly again after his recent injury woes in the last few seasons.

He added: “It was frustrating not playing and it was the right time for me to come out and play games.

“By the time I’d played two or three games here I felt I’d settled in. I had gained match fitness and it was time to start doing what I do by chipping in with goals and creating chances.

“It was nice to be doing that again. It’s never nice to be sitting in the physio’s room and then when you’re back fit not playing.

“That’s why it was important for me to go on loan, and it was important for the gaffer at Kilmarnock to see me go out and play.”

The forward was also overjoyed at scoring against Ayr, bitter rivals of his parent club Kilmarnock.

Kiltie says he received a few messages from his pals wanting him to score against United.

He said: “I had a few texts before the game saying ‘make sure you score’, so it was nice to put it in the back of the net.

“There were a few of my mates at the game and I was reading some of the messages after it and there were plenty of positive ones from them.

“It was just important not to get beat on Tuesday.

“Going a goal down it’s important to get back in the game and, to be honest, I felt as though we should have won it.”