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Match Preview/Thread - Morton vs Inverness (28th October)


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Muirhead wasn't actually very good tonight - we would have scored six or seven if he had managed the basics. Others were in a similar boat all over the park - defensively in the first half; with the ball in the second. For me, McGrattan was the star although Blues deserves credit as well. And Efe for the banter and a terrific goalbound block in the first half.

The most encouraging point though is that we didn't need to be at our best to still put that rabble effortlessly to the sword. There's a margin for error right now in our performance that we do not deserve given the quality of squad we have on paper. That's Imrie's doing.

If we drop the level of pressing and commitment then we will struggle again, but we don't actually need our players to be technically competent on any given day to still get a result. That's the most pleasing part of today and last week's performance as well - we're no longer looking in any way plucky or scrappy. 

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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11 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Muirhead wasn't actually very good tonight - we would have scored six or seven if he had managed the basics. Others were in a similar boat all over the park - defensively in the first half; with the ball in the second. For me, McGrattan was the star although Blues deserves credit as well. And Efe for the banter and a terrific goalbound block in the first half.

The most encouraging point though is that we didn't need to be at our best to still put that rabble effortlessly to the sword. There's a margin for error right now in our performance that we do not deserve given the quality of squad we have on paper. That's Imrie's doing.

If we drop the level of pressing and commitment then we will struggle again, but we don't actually need our players to be technically competent on any given day to still get a result. That's the most pleasing part of today and last week's performance as well - we're no longer looking in any way plucky or scrappy. 

100% agree. I’ve said before that Muirhead is a carthorse who’ll occasionally slip into ‘Red Rum’ mode - and it’s priceless when he does. He’s hitting the net. All other considerations are secondary. Everything else you said - also agreed. We’ve suddenly become horrible to play against.

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11 minutes ago, Brian Skelton said:

If we are still going strong in January I really hope the board find funds to back Imrie in that window.

Well where are these extra funds going to be found exactly, in the middle of an imminent recession and cost of living crisis?

If you want to see a team chucking around stupid money that they don't have until they inevitably fold, then Inverness are actually the team for you.

I'm sick and tired of this *ambishun* nonsense being aired against the current board, as if we haven't previously got into two fucking enormous, potentially club-killing fuck-ups with exactly this kind of attitude before.

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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56 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Well where are these extra funds going to be found exactly, in the middle of an imminent recession and cost of living crisis?

If you want to see a team chucking around stupid money that they don't have until they inevitably fold, then Inverness are actually the team for you.

I'm sick and tired of this *ambishun* nonsense being aired against the current board, as if we haven't previously got into two fucking enormous, potentially club-killing fuck-ups with exactly this kind of attitude before.

The funds are probably coming from the same pot as the last window whereby Dougie was open about trying to get a few in and failed (much to everyone's dismay). There'll be money come Jan, although I'd like to see grimshaw deal extended on the back of last few games. Tonight especially. Solid.

TIME FOR CHANGE!

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11 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

The funds are probably coming from the same pot as the last window whereby Dougie was open about trying to get a few in and failed (much to everyone's dismay). There'll be money come Jan, although I'd like to see grimshaw deal extended on the back of last few games. Tonight especially. Solid.

The same pot that we signed Grimshaw from and now Ambrose as well? Imrie was clearly looking for a forward but we've added elsewhere in the squad instead since. I'll be glad to be wrong but I'm not convinced there's another credible wage sitting there.

That takes us back to the original claim that the board need to "find funds" to back the manager in January - there's no fucking credible place to find them. The spare funds either already exist based on our season income and the Dalrada deal or they do not. The board can't print their own money in January to fund a signing because of *ambishun* though - that's just lazy, braying pish. 

 

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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If it starts to look like we’re unlikely to finish below (E.g.) 5th place you could release the forthcoming league position money in January, as we’ve more than likely set out a budget based on finishing 9th or 10th. 
Someone obviously needs to give us an advance on that money, which is another matter. 

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2 hours ago, Charles_Joe said:

If it starts to look like we’re unlikely to finish below (E.g.) 5th place you could release the forthcoming league position money in January, as we’ve more than likely set out a budget based on finishing 9th or 10th. 
Someone obviously needs to give us an advance on that money, which is another matter. 

A mystery sponsor, or no-one.

Given that we've just brought in World Cup 2014 stalwart Efe Ambrose it's fair to say there's someone dishing out the tenners at Cappielow but we really can't take it for granted.

Not to put too much of a dampener on things but if you think of the teams who've overachieved by getting into our division in the last decade or so, two of them are non-league now - Brechin and Cowden. Arbroath are hopefully soon to follow, with Dick "Dick" Campbell at the helm. But it goes to show that what goes up, in almost all cases, must come down.

Sometimes it works out, that you boost a team above its station, and it can linger on there for a long time. Bournemouth in England, Livingston in Scotland to some extent, my team Getafe in Spain, Sassuolo in Italy, Augsburg in Germany, RKC in the Netherlands. You need to be extremely lucky, extremely diligent, and have an amazing off-the-pitch setup, and then it can happen. After enough time, it becomes self-perpetuating. At least for a while. (Wigan would have fit this description in England, until they didn't. Will Hacken in Sweden one day fall, too?)

But more often than not it ends in tears. I'm about to type a list off the top of my head, no Googling, of teams whose reach exceeded their grasp. (I'm only including countries which westerners like ourselves would recognize as having functional legal systems; if Eastern Europe was factored in here then this list would be four times its size. If Russia was included, we'd crash the forum's server.)

Spain: Recreativo, Xerez, Castellon
Italy: Catania, Carpi
Germany: Wattenscheid, Ingolstadt
France: Istres*, Evian (Thonon Gaillard), Gazelec Ajaccio, Avignon
England: Carlisle, Stockport, Bolton
Scotland: Gretna, Airdrieonians v1.0., Clyde, Clydebank, Dunfermline, Dundee
Switzerland: Xamax v1.0
Belgium: Lierse**, Beerschot vwhatever.0
Netherlands: FC Amsterdam (this was in the 70s!), FC Twente
Portugal: Boavista***, Estrela Amadora
Sweden: Bromma

These are teams that felt they were on the verge of something big, spent massively to try to get to it, and ended up far below where they were at the beginning.

And this is a tiny list. I'd be able to think of more but I only really follow top flights in other countries, not lower leagues. I bet there's a ton of Clydes and Airdries from the Tagus to the Ural.

I'd rather we fanny about in the Championship for another thirty years than have one good year in the top flight, come back down, then end up bankrupt.

We need to be extremely careful. The cavalry isn't coming. It's us, and whatever sponsors MCT manage to get, against the abyss.

*still publicly listed on the French stock exchange, if you fancy gambling on them ever getting back into the professional ranks (they won't)
**actually got to the Champions League back in the 90s, tried to get back, fell in with a bunch of Egyptians who believe it or not genuinely tried to keep them afloat, but failed. There's tons of Belgian clubs who tried the same gambit and failed. Roeselare and La Louviere, off the top of my head, but I don't know how much they overspent so I won't include them. Let's just assume they're all shite.
***there was matchfixing involved here but they were ganting for a relegation regardless
 

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There’s clearly some budget still there and I presume (maybe wrongly) that dalriada deal came in a bit too late for us in the window. Albeit did allow us to sign Crawford grimshaw and now Ambrose. I still think we need a striker so expect us to bring in 1 or 2 in January. Also once O’Connor is fit I can’t see lithgow getting a game. 

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I entirely agree that there should be no speculate to accumulate nonsense, if the money isn't there it isn't there, but I wouldn't be so sure the budget is spent. Since the seemingly game changing Dalrada deal was announced the only signings we've made are Grimshaw and now Ambrose, although Crawford was the day before the announcement so presumably the club already knew that money was guaranteed. We've also loaned out Lyon and Garrity in that time. We've presumably also budgeted for elimination at the earliest stage of each cup, so progressing in the Scottish Cup would help as well.

Muirhead should have had a double and could have had a hattrick last night while having some frustrating moments in all round play. While we're better for having him through the middle than we were a month ago, it's so encouraging that we can still dismantle teams with him having a night where the game passed him by at times - and even at that he still scored one and created two, so if he can still deliver goals despite having spells where the ball wasn't sticking then great. If we can stay in touch with the top four until January and there is the scope to add a centre forward, this team could begin to look very threatening with the options to change things up front.

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Oh Lord, Brian Wake

 

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8 hours ago, vikingTON said:

Muirhead wasn't actually very good tonight - we would have scored six or seven if he had managed the  

Probably fair comment, but I would say he did really well in creating the space to get the shot away for the 1st goal, albeit it was a still  an absolute howler from the keeper. Apart from that he didn't have a great game, I agree, but generally it's really good to see that the improvement in effort and commitment we saw last season after the arrival of Sir Dougie has carried over into this season. 

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11 hours ago, Pedrodelawasp said:

Bit of a giggle from the people in hospitality giving Efe MotM.

Think any actual award would go to Crawford, though he wasn’t the only candidate.

He strolled it. Definitely a candidate for it. 

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9 hours ago, SassenachTon said:

100% agree. I’ve said before that Muirhead is a carthorse who’ll occasionally slip into ‘Red Rum’ mode - and it’s priceless when he does. He’s hitting the net. All other considerations are secondary. Everything else you said - also agreed. We’ve suddenly become horrible to play against.

Terrible take. The guy is one of the better quality players we have. His problem is he's lazy/lacks confidence at times but he's hot more ability than the majority of players in the league. 

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Muirhead was asking the referee how much time was left after the 4th goal so he clearly fancied his hat-trick. Edit - I'm talking crap as he'd only scored once. Maybe he fancied us getting to 6.

That was a long overdue pumping of that mob after the tankings we've had from them. Not surprised to see that they had more possession but the workrate and effort from our guys prevented them doing anything useful with it whilst we took our chances when they came.

Next?

McGhee needs some support, there's no-one backing him up.
Hayes playing it forward, Bell being forced to do it all alone, now forward from Marr, here's Ritchie, still Andy Ritchie, look at the control...

That is a marvellous goal from Andy Ritchie. Twenty minutes on the clock and Morton's supporters come alive. A goal which epitomises the control, the arrogance, the cheek of Andy Ritchie.

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It's very pleasing to wake up knowing our work for the weekend is already done and we can relax this afternoon and leave the others to fight over the points. Big thanks to Dougie and the lads for a sterling result and a stress free day.
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The criticism of Muirhead is really harsh. He's doing everything he should be - leading the line, holding the ball up, battling with defenders and scoring goals. That was a great inswinging corner for the OG as well.

I've been one of his biggest critics but its a bit daft to expect him to have perfect composure when he's throwing himself about the way he did last night.

 

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Aye I've maybe come across harsher than intended there, while he's had some frustrating moments and missed two great chances he's also scored one and assisted another, while the cross for the penalty was an excellent delivery as well. He's on track to be the double figure centre forward we thought we didn't have.

As for man of the match, I couldn't really argue with anyone saying Baird, Ambrose, Crawford or Blues, but for me it's McGrattan again. It's him pretty much every week, I think we've genuinely got a real talent here. Things like his first touch, his composure under pressure and his positional sense are all just a little bit ahead of what we're accustomed to seeing from Championship players and it makes him a really exciting prospect.

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Oh Lord, Brian Wake

 

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