PORT ADELAIDE Magpies coach Matthew Lokan lamented his side's first quarter, in which South Adelaide kicked five unanswered goals, which saw them run out 35-point victors.

“That was the difference in the game,” Lokan said.

“Our indicators were okay in the first quarter, but we weren’t able to capitalise inside forward 50.

“I thought we over-handballed a little bit in the middle - by memory, I think we may have had more handballs than kicks in the first quarter.”

Lokan was pleased with the improvement his young side showed, after disappointing losses to North Adelaide and West Adelaide in the past fortnight.

“I think we improved a lot this week compared to the last two weeks,” he said.

“I thought today we had patches in the game where we played some really good footy and a style of footy that we expect from our guys.

“To South’s credit they were able to capitalise on turnover a little bit better than what we were - we probably wasted a few opportunities in front of goal.”

The first-year Magpies coach believes his side is showing improved signs in the contested ball and work-rate but understands the expectation for his side is to win games of football.

“It’s disappointing to lose because I thought we had a real shot today to get a really important win for us, but there were some positive signs from our blokes today,” he said.

“We had the momentum in the third term, but South were able to kick a couple of goals after that, and probably stretched the margin a little too much.

“You’re never happy with a loss but we showed some good signs of improvement from our list.

The Magpies have now lost its last five games, as well as, a draw with Woodville-West Torrens in Round 3 at Alberton, but Lokan found some positives in his team's 35-point loss.

“I think we turned our form around a little bit today, as I said we didn’t obviously win but I think the effort and our contest work was much better today,” he said.

“We had a couple of guys do some really good jobs for us today which was very pleasing.

“Will Snelling kept Joel Cross to I think one kick for the game, Jasper Pittard was great across half back, and Lindsay Thomas kicked four goals.”

Port Adelaide now face Central District on Saturday at 2.10pm at My Money House Oval in Round 10 of the SANFL.