Ricki Lamie may have been left disappointed by Morton's defeat to table-toppers Dundee United on Saturday but the 24-year-old defender continues to relish taking on the big boys.

The Ton were floored by a double from Billy King as United cemented their place at the summit of the Ladbrokes Championship after a hard-earned win at chilly Cappielow.

The Tangerines remain the favourites to earn promotion back to the top flight but in a tight division, Lamie knows nothing can be taken for granted.

He said: “Even though we’ve had big teams in the league over the last few years, like Rangers, Hibs and Hearts, no one really ran away with it. Hibs opened up a gap with four or five weeks to go last time but the rest of us were fighting for the play-offs and the competition is relentless. You never look at the fixture list and say ‘we’ve got an easy game this week’.”

United had the best of the chances on Saturday and made a breakthrough on the hour when King lashed a low drive into the bottom corner. Jai Quitongo spurned Morton’s best chance after he latched on to a poor back pass only to prod the ball wide before King killed the game off in stoppage time.

Lamie added: “We started well. We knew it was going to be a tough game, because it was tight at Tannadice. We’ve played them a few times and we know what they are like.

“We put a lot of pressure on them for the first 30 minutes and the first half was very even. We tried to take the game to them because we’re at home and it worked. They dominated wee spells but we lacked that cutting edge in the final third and that is what has cost us.”