COWDENBEATH boss Dougie Hill was very disappointed with his team’s performance at Linlithgow, and is looking for a lot better when Championship side Morton come to Central Park this Saturday in the third round of the SPFL Trophy.

The Blues manager felt his young team made too many simple errors, which led to easy goals for Linlithgow Rose, and he has made it clear to his players that he is expecting higher levels of concentration against a Morton team who have had a difficult start to this season in Scottish football’s second tier, with one win and three defeats.

Hill said this week: “A couple of basic errors from us made life too easy for Linlithgow, as both their first-half goals came from bad mistakes by us.

“This left us chasing the game and while we kept battling away it was too much to get back into a challenging position.

“It turned into a really bad day at the office for us in a game we were really looking to make an impact in.”

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He admits that the young players he has in the side have to learn quickly to concentrate harder to avoid making errors that give away cheap goals.

“We have played seven league games and yet to have a shut-out,” he added.

“In our four recent home games some bad errors saw us winning only one and drawing two, and in these games that finished level, we were the better side, but losing goals from bad errors cost us four points, and that is the difference from being in the lower half of the table rather than the top end.

“We have another difficult game this Saturday, for Morton are a side with a lot of experienced players, and we will need to be concentrating hard for 90 minutes at both ends of the pitch to have a chance of keeping our run in the SPFL Trophy going."

Hill is hopeful of having attacking full-back Greg MacPherson back in action, after recovering from his ankle injury which would allow him to use experienced Aaron Dunsmore further forward.

Also, he is hoping he will be able to sign experienced midfielder, Danny Swanson, who played as a trialist against Linlithgow on Saturday, and he may be included in the squad to meet the Greenock side.

Meanwhile, the manager was happy with the home draw Cowden received in the first round of the Scottish Cup, with West of Scotland First Division side, Rutherglen Glencairn, due to come to Central Park on Saturday, September 28.

“A very interesting tie and it will provide us with a good test, for Glencairn have some good players and play in a very competitive league,” he observed.