Match Preview/Thread - Morton vs Bonnyrigg Rose (23rd July)

[DreamOakTree]

Was good to see some of our new players for the first time. Thought we were good on both wings with Jai and Jaze backed well by the full backs, almost a mirror image. Easdale wasn’t the worst player on the pitch, but a proper centre forward between those Wingers would reap dividends. Thought Jai was MOM. The players who came off the bench contributed well so I’m quite hopeful we’ll do okay, though a couple of decent additions could have us challenging for a play-off place.

[so72]

1 hour ago, DreamOakTree said:

Was good to see some of our new players for the first time. Thought we were good on both wings with Jai and Jaze backed well by the full backs, almost a mirror image. Easdale wasn’t the worst player on the pitch, but a proper centre forward between those Wingers would reap dividends. Thought Jai was MOM. The players who came off the bench contributed well so I’m quite hopeful we’ll do okay, though a couple of decent additions could have us challenging for a play-off place.

Easdale was the worst player on the pitch including their overweight jobbers.

 

 

We are a goalscorer and creative player away from a solid side. Imrie was scathing in hospitality after the match, said the team fell well below of expectations. Thats the sort of hunger and desire we like to see.

[The Bewilderedbeast]

1 hour ago, DreamOakTree said:

Was good to see some of our new players for the first time. Thought we were good on both wings with Jai and Jaze backed well by the full backs, almost a mirror image. Easdale wasn’t the worst player on the pitch, but a proper centre forward between those Wingers would reap dividends. Thought Jai was MOM. The players who came off the bench contributed well so I’m quite hopeful we’ll do okay, though a couple of decent additions could have us challenging for a play-off place.

Eh!

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Was quite surprised how many fat and unfit players they had, as I  genuinely thought the days of fat footballers in the senior game was a thing of the past. It took me right back to watching football in the 1980s when I think at that time it was a legal requirement for every team to field at least one fat fuck. 

[BishyTON]

1 hour ago, so72 said:

Easdale was the worst player on the pitch including their overweight jobbers.

 

 

We are a goalscorer and creative player away from a solid side. Imrie was scathing in hospitality after the match, said the team fell well below of expectations. Thats the sort of hunger and desire we like to see.

Yep I was glad to hear Imrie be so scathing of the shocking display against Clyde and the pretty poor one today. At last we have a manager that doesn't pull out the 'poor wee Morton card' and has high expectations of his squad.

[so72]

47 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Was quite surprised how many fat and unfit players they had, as I  genuinely thought the days of fat footballers in the senior game was a thing of the past. It took me right back to watching football in the 1980s when I think at that time it was a legal requirement for every team to field at least one fat fuck. 

Their Goalkeeper looked overweight for a punter (as am I atm) never mind a footballer. The number 9 they brought on was a fridge, or at least certainly visits his often.

[SassenachTon]

5 hours ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Was quite surprised how many fat and unfit players they had, as I  genuinely thought the days of fat footballers in the senior game was a thing of the past. It took me right back to watching football in the 1980s when I think at that time it was a legal requirement for every team to field at least one fat fuck. 

Correct. It was also a legal requirement for every player to neck a couple of pints and get through a whole pack of 20 Player’s No.6 at half-time, before running out and having a pish up the side of one of the pale blue Invacars parked up near the corner flag.

The golden days of proper fitba.

[DreamOakTree]

17 hours ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Eh!

His first two touches were admittedly horrendous, he looked nervy and anxious, but after that he played a part in a few of the build-ups with some neat touches. He wasn’t involved enough or good enough in the air to be a centre forward though.

[HamCam]

I must have been at a different game. I thought yesterday was poor and highlighted the limitations of the squad. We started brightly but then conceded a shocker from their first corner. We responded well, scored a couple of good goals and looked like we were in for a morale boosting gubbing of what was at best a decent pub team. The second-half was frustratingly uninspiring with little patience or creativity on display. Easy to target Easdale (clearly not up to this level and bereft of confidence) but not sure I would be giving too many pass marks. Puzzled as to why folk are getting overly excited by Quitongo. He is the same player who left us and has not progressed hence why other clubs have emptied him.  He clearly has ability and had their LB in his pocket but where is the end product? He will score the odd exceptional goal but he plays for himself and not the team - look at the opportunity in the first half when it was essentially 3v1 with an easy pass on but no surprise it was head down and straight into the opposition. Unless we unearth someone who will score more than the odd goal (and accept buttons in return) this season looks like being another tough grind.

[Toby]

43 minutes ago, HamCam said:

I must have been at a different game. I thought yesterday was poor and highlighted the limitations of the squad. We started brightly but then conceded a shocker from their first corner. We responded well, scored a couple of good goals and looked like we were in for a morale boosting gubbing of what was at best a decent pub team. The second-half was frustratingly uninspiring with little patience or creativity on display. Easy to target Easdale (clearly not up to this level and bereft of confidence) but not sure I would be giving too many pass marks. Puzzled as to why folk are getting overly excited by Quitongo. He is the same player who left us and has not progressed hence why other clubs have emptied him.  He clearly has ability and had their LB in his pocket but where is the end product? He will score the odd exceptional goal but he plays for himself and not the team - look at the opportunity in the first half when it was essentially 3v1 with an easy pass on but no surprise it was head down and straight into the opposition. Unless we unearth someone who will score more than the odd goal (and accept buttons in return) this season looks like being another tough grind.

If it’s the same passage of play I’m thinking about, the easy pass was to Easdale on his right, and I spoke at length about it to my mates in the pub last night.

I’m very careful not to be too critical of Easdale as I think he wants to be there as much as we want him to be, but if Quitongo hasn’t the confidence in one of his teammates, I’d say it’s more of a reflection of the player(s) around him than it is of Quitongo himself.

[so72]

9 minutes ago, Toby said:

If it’s the same passage of play I’m thinking about, the easy pass was to Easdale on his right, and I spoke at length about it to my mates in the pub last night.

I’m very careful not to be too critical of Easdale as I think he wants to be there as much as we want him to be, but if Quitongo hasn’t the confidence in one of his teammates, I’d say it’s more of a reflection of the player(s) around him than it is of Quitongo himself.

Agreed. Jai looked up and seen who was there and it was Zander. If theres a truth to the rumours about Easdale not wantinf to be there then I feel for him cause his dad isnt an easy man to say no to. 

 

I thought Jai showed flashes and it actually had me willing to put down my huge reservations and give him a few games. 

[Toby]

17 minutes ago, so72 said:

Agreed. Jai looked up and seen who was there and it was Zander. If theres a truth to the rumours about Easdale not wantinf to be there then I feel for him cause his dad isnt an easy man to say no to. 

 

I thought Jai showed flashes and it actually had me willing to put down my huge reservations and give him a few games. 

Yeah, some of my reservations about his signing are being tempered, too.

As I said at the time of his signing, he’s not exactly the type of guy I’d like to go for a pint with, and comes across as a bit of a wanker, but I don’t need to like him (I still draw the line at Lithgow), but HamCam says he’s not progressed since leaving us. Well, obviously. We wouldn’t be able to get a sniff of signing him if he had progressed, given the market that we’re operating in. That doesn’t mean he’s not a perfectly decent signing for a club in our current position in the food chain.

I don't know any rumours about Easdale not wanting to be here though, I merely suggested that from seeing his body language  and imagining how he must feel every time he picks up his phone and looks at Twitter.

[EanieMeany]

My sympathy with Easdale is (or was) a wee bit limited as ultimately he’s getting paid money to knock about a football team, and he could chuck it if he really wanted to…but that said, I’ve no reason at all to think ill of him as a person or to think he’s some kind of malignant character and as such it’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for someone being so badly shown up in public the way he is. It’s just not a nice thing to see.

As I said before, I don’t think he was ever really meant to be near the team and it didn’t really bother me a great deal that he was there in the background on the furthest fringes of the squad - if that’s the price of significant investment then so what really, it’s somebody to collect the bibs after training - but events have transpired to suddenly shunt him into the main picture. It’s that element that I really do feel for him for, I don’t think he himself would ever have wanted or expected this and it should never have happened. The boy has been flung to the wolves a bit with how he’s been used and it is, in all honesty, a wee bit unpleasant. It’s no good for anybody.

I don’t blame him for it (although there’s always the “he could chuck it” caveat, but that’s probably complicated for him personally too), and I don’t blame his family for it either, I don’t for a minute buy any of this nonsense about them forcing managers to play him or whatever - the club, Imrie and MacPherson, to varying degrees, carry the can for not bothering their arse to acquire any real football players to play in that position. If it wasn’t Easdale, it’d probably be some other wee guy that’s nowhere close to being a Championship striker.

Another centre-forward needs to be brought in and brought in as soon as is possible, for everybody’s sake.

[port-ton]

Thought Quitongo was better on the right than when he moved through the centre in the second half. That seemed to be when he became a bit of a headless chicken with his head down running with the ball when he had passing options. 

I think it was the same moment mentioned in posts above where he didn't pass it and you could hear imrie on the stream shouting at him to move the ball. 

[GiGi]

I watched Bonnyrigg play a lowland league game last season and I thought they looked terrible, was surprised that Cowdenbeath could actually be worse. If asked that day I'd have said a decent championship team would pulverise them near double figures.

[shaddypeekey]

We were rank rotten yesterday. Bonnyrigg should have been steamrollered in the first 15 minutes. We looked tactically ignorant. A decent league 1 team would have annihilated them. We missed at least six gilt edged chances. Conversely, we Bonnyrigg should have converted at least two chances out defence gave them. I fear for the season if our unfit players don't get back soon. 

[dunning1874]

That Quitongo failing to play a pass moment, Easdale wasn't the only pass on. Playing McGrattan in was possible as well and Kabia was free for a pass that wasn't putting him in on goal but was obviously preferable to blundering into a tackle and losing it through trying to do everything himself.

As said at half-time, he was far too greedy. He, and to a lesser extent Kabia, had their full backs on toast but they aren't going to have it that easy against Championship opposition and they need to utilise the space they find to deliver an end product rather than trying to do a Paul Walker and dancing back outside their man to skin them again. This maybe seems harsh on Kabia when he scored an excellent goal but that was one of the only times he just drove at goal rather than trying to overdo it.

Quitongo did show his use as an outball on the right and moved us up the park effectively, although when he's competing for high balls he needs to think more about winning it than trying to draw a foul so often - with his physical presence he's going to win fouls anyway by just focusing on playing the game.

I was quite surprised that when Muirhead replaced Easdale we initially went with Quitongo through the middle and Muirhead on the right. While once he's fit and a new centre forward has been signed I'd expect to see Muirhead starting on the right, until that signing comes I'd rather see Muirhead in the middle and Quitongo wide. Quitongo disappeared from the game completely as soon as he moved into the centre and while his energy is useful for the high press as a winger, it looks a lot more like a headless chicken act when he's in the centre while any semblance of offering an outball disappeared.

Muirhead genuinely didn't offer anything more than Easdale had, so you can understand him not starting when he's that far away from fitness and clearly isn't quite in the place yet where playing 90 minutes is actually going to help. I get we had a lot of reshuffling that was just about giving players game time at the point we had McGregor replacing McGrattan, but I hope moving Muirhead deeper at that point was purely a case of fitting everyone in rather than having any intention of regularly using Muirhead as the advanced central midfielder - you could get away with that last season when the shape was akin to a 3-4-1-2, this season with a back four with high full backs and a front three ahead of that midfielder Muirhead should only ever be featuring in that front three.

I was impressed with McGrattan and would be fine with him starting next week, although again there's the caveat of the standard of opposition and I'm expecting him to be the one to drop out for Blues, who Imrie evidently views as a guaranteed starter. He was effectively covering the number 9 position in getting onto the shoulder of defenders as well as being the creative midfielder and his movement was very good while having to cover two positions at once. It was him that created Quitongo's sitter as well. McGregor seems to offer something none of the other wide options do in just being willing to go outside to the byline and whip a cross in as quickly as possible, whereas every other winger is all about cutting inside and driving at the box. I'd like to see more of him. Pignatiello continues to impress.

When we conceded such a poor goal so early there was an alarm bell ringing that we might be getting a day of looking tidy in possession while doing nothing with it versus Bonnyrigg rarely attacking but looking like scoring every time they ventured forward, and while it didn't quite play out the way Baird and O'Connor both need to show a big improvement. A Championship team would absolutely have scored more than one against us yesterday.

[HamCam]

1 hour ago, Toby said:

If it’s the same passage of play I’m thinking about, the easy pass was to Easdale on his right, and I spoke at length about it to my mates in the pub last night.

I’m very careful not to be too critical of Easdale as I think he wants to be there as much as we want him to be, but if Quitongo hasn’t the confidence in one of his teammates, I’d say it’s more of a reflection of the player(s) around him than it is of Quitongo himself.

That was the most obvious example yesterday (there were others) - it will be interesting to see in the highlights if Quitongo looks up at any point. Regardless of how he views Easdale it was a pass he should have made and if not, my recollection is he also had another man pushing up on the left.

[DreamOakTree]

Surprising to see so much emphasis on one passage of play where a forward player should’ve passed the ball but decided he would keep his momentum going and maybe grab a goal. I also shouted at him to pass it but wouldn’t include it in a commentary of his overall performance, as it’s something that occurs in every single match at every level. It’s a typical example of Our fans looking for something to criticise and trying to sound smart into the bargain! 
If Dougie’s saying we need to have more of a cutting edge I’m all for it, but I’d bet he’s not focussing all his energy on one moment when a forward tried his luck by continuing a promising run, evidenced by keeping said player on the pitch till the final whistle.

[EanieMeany]

27 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

Surprising to see so much emphasis on one passage of play where a forward player should’ve passed the ball but decided he would keep his momentum going and maybe grab a goal. I also shouted at him to pass it but wouldn’t include it in a commentary of his overall performance, as it’s something that occurs in every single match at every level. It’s a typical example of Our fans looking for something to criticise and trying to sound smart into the bargain! 
If Dougie’s saying we need to have more of a cutting edge I’m all for it, but I’d bet he’s not focussing all his energy on one moment when a forward tried his luck by continuing a promising run, evidenced by keeping said player on the pitch till the final whistle.

Jai might leave because of it!