ANTON McElhone has fired a warning to his players after they slipped to their third defeat in four games on Saturday against Raith Rovers.

The Ton boss blasted the 'unacceptable' performance from his side and admitted that they haven’t done enough to deserve victory.

He believes that his players have the qualities to turn things around - but has urged them to up their game after falling to a second home defeat in a row.

He told the Tele: “Was it acceptable? No, not good enough at all.

“I think you can see their reaction from the game, it was a huge win for Raith.

“We haven’t done enough, but this is a team that we know has the right qualities.

“There are players who maybe weren’t playing a few weeks ago, who have been champing at the bit to come in and play, well now is the time to stand up and be counted.

“I don’t think we’ve won since before Christmas now and that’s not acceptable.

“We need to do better as a group, there’s no doubting that.

“We know we have the quality here, but it's more than just having quality on the ball. You’ve got to do the right things as well, you can't be giving the ball away, you’ve got to defend your box and put balls in the opposition box.

“We had two strikers on in the second half and we then went with two wing-backs, but again we’ve got players coming off who we really needed to stay on the park.

“It’s a concern that we’re not scoring, but it’s not just been over the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve not been a high-scoring team all season, so let's not overreact just yet, but if we want to be picking up points we need to be putting the ball in the back of the net.”

McElhone admitted that he has been frustrated at his side's performances since the turn of the year.

He admitted that he is working hard on the training ground to rectify Ton's inabilities to defend from set pieces.

And he called for his team to pull together and contribute as a collective.

He added: “Since the turn of the year it’s been frustrating.

“You’re always in a game at nothing each and to then go down from a set play is annoying.

“That’s turned into an Achilles heel for us at the moment, and we’re trying everything we can to remedy that.

“Bottom line though, it’s got to be better. We’ve got to stop giving away free-kicks in that position, you’ve got to defend it better first and foremost.

“Going forward we’ve not really laid a glove on the goalkeeper.

“At the end of the day that’s up to the whole team to contribute to that by putting the ball in the right areas, with the strikers doing their job too."