shocking defending

Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies has warned his players to buck up their ideas after their shock 3-1 defeat at Morton. Jefferies felt his side should have killed off the game after Colin Nish's 47th-minute opener in the Tennent's Scottish Cup third-round clash at Cappielow. But he slammed the "stupid" mistakes and "shocking defending" which allowed the Second Division side to go on to win the game. He said: "We have given them an equaliser and given them a massive lift. "Defending was shocking for all three goals. I think they believe the publicity a wee bit, they think they've cracked it. "It takes results like this to wake them up. They had better take it on board. "We don't have money to go out and make wholesale changes or I would. "We've got to make them realise the level of their playing in the last five or six weeks is not the level we have been playing at for the last year. "We make it easy when we go and do stupid things and make it easier for the opposition. "They are good enough and right now they are not showing they are good enough." Delighted Morton boss Jim McInally felt the result was his best since arriving at the club. Two goals from Chris Templeman and another from Paul McGowen in the space of 11 second-half minutes made it a famous victory for the Greenock side. McInally said: "When they scored early in the second half, we did fear the worst. "They started to show quality but my players deserve unbelievable credit. "They play under pressure every week and they are used to coming back and working hard. Celtic and Rangers are the only teams that regularly beat Kilmarnock. "I said that to the players, 'Enjoy it because we have beaten a good team'." The Morton boss admitted he was worried before the game about how his players would cope against an SPL side. He said: "We were just thinking, 'Will they do themselves justice or will they freeze?'. "But their back four was solid and the boys in the middle had tremendous energy."