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Match Preview/Thread - Motherwell vs Morton (Scottish Cup 16th April)


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7 minutes ago, dunning1874 said:

The difference in the last couple of games with the switch to the back four is massive. If we can reproduce that performance over the next three games it'd surely give us the wins we need to survive.

Hope you're right but we need to find a way to score more.

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Not sure many of us expected that performance tonight. Unlucky to lose on penalties but no disgrace. 

The problem though for the remaining games is where are the goals going to come from? This is definetely the season you could have headed out for a pie and bovril during the game and not had to come back and ask your mates - who scored?

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11 minutes ago, irnbru said:

Great performance. Motherwell weren't great but if we pressed like that and are confident in possession in the championship then we'd be higher in the right playoffs. 

With our current three goal Lewandowski options up front would we aye?

That there's a decent performance for the team to take from a *don't get shoed* cup tie is a good thing, but being competitive has rarely been the issue in the league level either. The real issues are shipping daft goals that undo a lot of good work and being completely toothless up front, neither of which have been banished by a good account of themselves this evening. 

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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5 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

With our current three goal Lewandowski options up front would we aye?

That there's a decent performance for the team to take from a *don't get shoed* cup tie is a good thing, but being competitive has rarely been the issue in the league level either. The real issues are shipping daft goals that undo a lot of good work and being completely toothless up front, neither of which have been banished by a good account of themselves this evening. 

OK, son. 

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44 minutes ago, irnbru said:

OK, son. 

GlisteningWeakChrysomelid-max-1mb.gif

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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Didn’t catch the game, but fair play to them making it that far. Really didn’t expect anything other than a comfortable Motherwell win. Would hope we’d take at least a wee bit of confidence into the Hearts game, though our issues in front of goal/fondness for giving away soft as shit goals is still very much alive. 

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1 hour ago, vikingTON said:

With our current three goal Lewandowski options up front would we aye?

That there's a decent performance for the team to take from a *don't get shoed* cup tie is a good thing, but being competitive has rarely been the issue in the league level either. The real issues are shipping daft goals that undo a lot of good work and being completely toothless up front, neither of which have been banished by a good account of themselves this evening. 

For all the squad's limitations, there's no question at all that a performance like tonight's would have us in the promotion play-off mix between the extra points we'd have gained and the ones that other teams would have dropped as a consequence. The gap from where we are to the top 4 is not a big one, it's absurd to suggest that we shouldn't be a lot closer to the top half than we are when you look at how cheaply we've given away so many points. 

After the East Fife game I thought that the glimmers of progress under Gus had wilted and I was massively scunnered, but there was a huge amount to be impressed by and pleased with from tonight's performance. There was a confidence and assuredness about the team for the entire 120 minutes that we've not saw from a Morton team in quite some time, we dominated big spells of the game and were comfortable in the parts we didn't - even late in normal time we resisted just dropping into our box and holding on, likewise in extra time, for all we lost a pretty cheap goal. Somehow, getting the equaliser didn't seem hugely surprising, there was a sense of focus and composure that we've not seen much of this season.

It's obviously a sickener to play like that and get the late equaliser only to go out on penalties - for all McGinty's previous ones have been decent, that one tonight just ain't on, just hit it and forget the fannying about - but in the circumstances the positives were more valuable than anything else. Collectively we looked miles better than we have in a long time, and individually there were some excellent performances: Ledger was once again excellent, McGinn brought a touch of quality and experience that Motherwell struggled to match, Nesbitt showed his best level (which is comfortably good enough to be a big threat to the likes of Motherwell) and McLean was excellent too. 

Whilst acknowledging that it was only one cup game and that it could all go badly wrong in the remaining league ones, what we saw tonight was hugely encouraging and also showed a sense of cohesion that makes the decision to not replace Hopkin sooner (and also Hopkin's own contributions) even more disastrous. The squad we've been landed with is a long way off perfect, but there's also a lot more to be had from it than we've got so far. Who knew having a manager was important?

AWMSC

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1 hour ago, EanieMeany said:

For all the squad's limitations, there's no question at all that a performance like tonight's would have us in the promotion play-off mix between the extra points we'd have gained and the ones that other teams would have dropped as a consequence. The gap from where we are to the top 4 is not a big one, it's absurd to suggest that we shouldn't be a lot closer to the top half than we are when you look at how cheaply we've given away so many points. 

The two key reasons why points have been given away cheaply all season are not addressed by performance levels but rather clinical efficiency at both ends of the park. That's not a criticism of McPherson or indeed the players: for the most part, they've been dealing with the hand given to them. They didn't choose to build a squad with ten million wide midfielders and no designated centre forwards. It is because of this flaw and not because of having a fitness coach in charge that we have 21 league goals from 24 games. Combine that with an average defence and it's a nailed-on '7th if you're lucky' campaign. None of the fundamental figures for either the attack or defence have shifted much under any of the three managers.

For all the talk of cheap points lost it's also worth remembering the truly laughable circumstances behind our three points gained at home to Ayr - without which we'd be pretty much stuffed already - as well as reflecting on why our most convincing league win was our only win in any competition this season to come with a two-goal margin or more. There have been just as many points gained then by clinging on in the closing stages, that could have been dropped with a different break of the ball. 

Unless we unearth a Wake-level saviour then we'll be lucky to stay in the division even with a good standard of performance: because if you don't convert that into chances, goals and points then it all proves meaningless at the business end of a campaign. 

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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In the first season of the Premier League, Norwich finished 3rd with a goal difference of -4. They did this because, despite being poor at the back, they had goals all over the park - not least from Chris Sutton and Mark Robins.

As that other famous son of the Broads once said - I'll tolerate a drunk or a racist, but not both. Football can tolerate a leaky backline or goalshy forwards, but not both. And as Norwich proved, it's better to be free-scoring and leaky at the back than parsimonious in both, because at least with the former you rack up the three points more often than zero. 

Tightening up at the back without a commensurate increase in goals would have us stodgily mid-table, not at the top. You can only do so much with draws. Not that mid-table is anything to sniff at. But when your top scorers are on three goals, you're not going up even if you have a back line reminiscent of late 80s Milan. 

EOho8Pw.png

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4 hours ago, TRVMP said:

In the first season of the Premier League, Norwich finished 3rd with a goal difference of -4. They did this because, despite being poor at the back, they had goals all over the park - not least from Chris Sutton and Mark Robins.

As that other famous son of the Broads once said - I'll tolerate a drunk or a racist, but not both. Football can tolerate a leaky backline or goalshy forwards, but not both. And as Norwich proved, it's better to be free-scoring and leaky at the back than parsimonious in both, because at least with the former you rack up the three points more often than zero. 

Tightening up at the back without a commensurate increase in goals would have us stodgily mid-table, not at the top. You can only do so much with draws. Not that mid-table is anything to sniff at. But when your top scorers are on three goals, you're not going up even if you have a back line reminiscent of late 80s Milan. 

Memory playing tricks or were we at one point top under Moore with a negative goal difference?

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1 hour ago, cmdc said:

Memory playing tricks or were we at one point top under Moore with a negative goal difference?

Aye, after the 5-0 defeat at Firhill at the end of September 2011. We’d started the season really well, then lost 4-1 at Palmerston before that game. The wheels came off spectacularly.

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5 hours ago, Toby said:

Aye, after the 5-0 defeat at Firhill at the end of September 2011. We’d started the season really well, then lost 4-1 at Palmerston before that game. The wheels came off spectacularly.

Ah yeah - wasn’t at Palmerston but Firhill was an absolute nightmare. Especially as I’d “brought a friend”.

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Yes, a selection of low-scoring wins and draws - albeit one punctuated by a 4-1 win over failed franchise outfit 'Ayr United' - was then followed up by a bunch of thrashing. A weird season, all in. 

EOho8Pw.png

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12 hours ago, TRVMP said:

Tightening up at the back without a commensurate increase in goals would have us stodgily mid-table, not at the top. You can only do so much with draws. Not that mid-table is anything to sniff at. But when your top scorers are on three goals, you're not going up even if you have a back line reminiscent of late 80s Milan. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for a minute arguing that the squad we have is good enough to be a credible promotion challenger, but the league being how it is means that even being marginally better would have us much closer to the top 4. If you look at games like the one we lost at home to Arbroath, I don't think for a minute we'd have lost that with McPherson (or indeed any remotely competent manager) in the dugout: that one is the best example, but there was a few of the others under McElhone that would fall into the same category.

There's 8 points between us and 4th, which us ultimately only a few goals either way over the season - holding on to a win or even a draw here, not losing there would be a few more points on our total and a few less on other teams. Would we particularly deserve to be in the top 4? Nope, not really, and the chances are we'd have fallen short come the end of the season anyway, but nonetheless it's entirely reasonable to propose that we've lost a number of points because of the sabotage of the Raes in trying to get by without a manager; if nothing else, there's a good few grand more in prize money by finishing higher up.

Also, if McPherson had been in sooner we might have added footballers in January instead of three jokers, so there's that too.

Again, not trying to argue we should be a top 4 side, just that there margins in the league are small enough that even a limited squad might have found itself a few places higher if it the owners were at all interested.

AWMSC

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