MORTON manager Dougie Imrie believes his side should have taken more points from their opening league fixtures but is pleased with the performances he has seen from his squad. 

The Cappielow club sit eighth in the Championship table after four games, after draws against Partick, Hamilton and Livingston were followed by Saturday's 3-2 loss at home to Falkirk.

And while the team has taken time to reflect on last weekend’s result, Imrie is keen not to dwell on it for too long. 

He said: “I think outwith the Falkirk game, which I think we really deserved to get something from, we’ve done OK in the first four fixtures of the season. 

“[We've had] two tough away games at Partick Thistle and Livingston and two home games where we should have taken maximum points. 

“Decisions have gone against us but we can’t dwell on that.”

The Ton boss was critical of referee Graham Grainger’s performance in the aftermath of their loss last weekend, and in particular his decision to award the visitors a penalty in the first half. 

But he admits he has also gone over the loss with the team and reflected on some of his own decisions.

“We’ll regroup," he said. "We went over the video this morning and we know where we can do better.

“Certainly, the two other goals we lost, we could have stopped at source a lot sooner than we did to prevent it falling in the back of the net.

"But I’m reasonably pleased with the start to the season so far. 

“Saturday was a sore one to take and we have to look at a few things. Did I make the substitutions too early? But you’re looking to try and get a reaction in the game.

“They’d brought it back to two each and I was worried with wee Moff, he’d been on a booking and I didn’t want to go down to ten men so I thought maybe take him off in case.

“It was end to end at times, it was frantic, there was challenges flying in and I didn’t want to take the risk so that was one of the reasons I took Owen off. 

“I took big Shug off because I saw him holding his hamstring and I didn’t want to lose him. I saw what happened last season when I lost him for eight to ten weeks. He’s a massive miss, so again, that was precautionary.

“We tried to make a couple of changes to get fresh legs on and get back into the game, but credit to Falkirk, they held on and took the points back home.”

Ton will get a break from league action this weekend as they travel to Fife to face Cowdenbeath in the Challenge Cup. 

But Imrie has stressed that there will still be plenty to play for when his side face off with Queen’s Park in their next Championship fixture on September 14.

"This league is very competitive," he said. "I don’t think there’s much between the teams. 

“You could see that on Saturday. Everybody would have expected Ayr to go to Dunfermline and scoosh it, but by all accounts, Dunfermline were very good and were unfortunate not to win the game.

“There’s a lot to play for in this division. On their day anybody in this league can beat anybody. 

“I’m really pleased with the way we’re competing, and for 95 per cent of the support who stayed and clapped the boys off the pitch at the weekend, I think they can see the effort the boys are putting.”