dunning1874

Players who had a go up front today: Michael Garrity Owen Moffat Nathan Shaw Iain Wilson Fergus Owens (for 2 minutes) Arron Lyall Some laugh. Other than the flurry of corners at the start of the second half Ayr weren't threatening at all, a team who look totally lost and there's only one way that can be fixed. Wilson (when he wasn't a centre forward), Delaney and Comrie were all really good but Moffat was terrific, what a difference in him since Murray took over. While 7 bookings in 8 games is wild, Gillespie's booking today was an even worse decision than his booking at Airdrie. He was genuinely playing the ball as the ref blew his whistle, it wasn't kicking the ball away by any stretch of the imagination.

We're the better team here. Still vulnerable at set-pieces and can't see a clean sheet so we need to kill this. The first 20 minutes Ayr were getting a lot of joy with a ball over the top down our right, it's testament to Murray that I couldn't even see what he changed to fix it but it completely stopped after that. Brutal to end up with even more injuries.

The idea that any internal/inexperienced appointment is automatically a bad one doesn't really stand up. To give one example of it working, Alan Burrows started out at Motherwell as part of the media team doing articles for their website and through a series of internal promotions became their CEO, where he lasted for 10 years over a highly successful period for them on and off the park before being headhunted to a bigger club. I'll judge him on what he does in the job.

There's still some degree of credit in the bank left for Garrity having been our top scorer last season and currently our second top scorer in this one, but he really has been rank the last two games. You can't put the consistent poor decision making down to playing through the middle. Didn't appreciate until I saw the winner back how bad it is from Johnson. I don't think it's just that Storer would have kept it out, he'd probably have got down and held it without even needing to parry it rather than dangling a leg towards it. That's 10 goals conceded over the 4 consecutive defeats, and at least 4 of them are obvious Johnson mistakes that have taken us from drawing to losing. Storer's return can't come quickly enough, we're not going to win games with a keeper throwing one in at critical times every week.

That's now 4 wins in 6 for them and they're 4 points ahead of us, they're the form team in the league and it'll need a collapse for them to end up in the bottom two from here. Despite having played one fewer game and being on the same points though, Ayr getting reeled into the relegation battle isn't out of the question. Only 1 win in 8 for them, we can't lose down there next week.

Ultimately we've just been seen off by a better team having competed well for most of the game, but once again Murray's lack of subs is a massive cause of frustration. The game is getting more stretched with St Johnstone taking control of midfield, Gillespie's on a booking and MacPherson's invisible defensively, they're both breathing out their arses while Taylor and Crawford are getting splinters in theirs. Subs are being made too late and we're not making enough of them. Could even argue one of the two subs he did make made it worse, because the change to a back three to drop Wilson back left even more space, then the second comes from an unchallenged waltz through the middle of the park. Being seen off by a better team after a decent performance doesn't mean Murray didn't also get it wrong and he really needs to stop cutting his nose off to spite his face with not using his subs.

Obviously there's a glaring question of who we play up front with Brophy injured and Main suspended, but I'm more concerned about the midfield. After conceding 6 goals in 2 games against sides in the bottom three and what St Johnstone have done to us twice this season, the last time at Cappielow being in no small part due to having MacPherson in a midfield two, we cannot afford to be so soft in midfield again. Having said last week that I would put Wilson in midfield but could understand Murray keeping him at centre back, I don't think that would be understandable at all for this one. The midfield needs Wilson and an extra body as well; even with Wilson in the two, another 4-2-3-1 will see us overrun again. Ideally it'd be Wilson, Gillespie and Blues but I'm guessing if Blues is back in the squad it'll be on the bench, with Murray mentioning needing to bring players back in a week or two earlier than planned with so many missing. Even if Lopata-White doesn't make it, and it sounds like he's borderline from Murray's preview, Owens and Moore at centre back with Wilson and Gillespie in front of them is a more solid defensive foundation than Wilson plus one at centre back without Wilson in midfield.

Moore has been our best defender this season, very encouraging to hold onto him when he should only improve with more games.

If the vote this week was a final yes/no I'd be leaning to no because of the current lack of detail about safeguards, but ironing out those things is going to be part of a due diligence period and is exactly why it's the right approach to have one vote about proceeding to that stage and another about the final agreement. I don't see any reason not to go ahead and apply greater scrutiny now, knowing we can still say no further down the line if we don't like the look of the small print. The stuff about appealing to an international audience did strike me as total pie in the sky, but that was the only thing that I felt was some kind of red flag. Even if my gut instinct is correct that generating any sort of credible income from that avenue is simply never going to happen and believing it's even possible is worryingly naive on their part, it's not like they seemed to be putting all their eggs in that basket either and the rest of what they're aiming for coming to fruition would still be good in and of itself. It's not like they're proposing a Caley Braves type business model where the whole thing is dependent on that outside interest.

It moved on right after you dropped off as well!

I didn't post anything during the game about it because I genuinely wasn't sure and wanted to see it back, but the highlights confirm that Ballantyne's tackling leg is completely on the ground, he hasn't missiled into it in midair the way Main later did for that stonewall red, and he clearly plays the ball. I think a booking for that would be understandable for taking both man and ball and the speed of it although slightly harsh, a red is just a complete head loss of a decision.

I understand why Stuparevic is an obvious name for people to jump to, but we don't even know if he's in the UK at all. He could have returned to Serbia after being released by Motherwell. Murray really needs to start using all his subs. It was daft last Saturday when we'd had 3 games in 8 days and it was well beyond cutting his nose off to spite his face today when we were down to 10 men and players were understandably knackered from the extra running required. I'm fine with a manager deciding there's a core group they trust but in the last two games it's reached the point that it's objectively bad management to not get more legs on.

Even with 10 men we were well in the game and creating some chances, with Main costing us an equaliser by being so greedy and selfish in shooting when he could have squared it to Garrity for a tap in. That he's then compounded that already dreadful error by turning the game into a training exercise for Airdrie with his rampant stupidity should end his Morton career.

Send Main back to Ayr tonight. As effective a footballer as Adam Coakley and considerably stupider.

I'd have thought conceding three last week would be the impetus to get Wilson back into midfield with Owens or Moore beside Lopata-White, but Murray's done enough so far to trust that he knows what he's doing.