Match Preview/Thread - Morton vs Cove Rangers (25th February)

[SassenachTon]

Fantastic result - but once again, here's how I felt for most of today;

 

 

[Jamie_M]

1 hour ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Did you seriously think we were ever in danger of being relegated this season? 

We started the season giving Easdale game time FFS. Survival was always the primary goal while hoping for better.

We have played the waiting game for the 'right' players in the past but fair fucks to Dougie, he has shown absolute balls of steel in that regard throughout this season. Don't think I can ever remember a squad getting constantly strengthened month to month like this.

Not for quite some time I haven't seriously considered it a possibility but there has been points where it was more than a passing thought.

As has been said, after the thumping in Partick things were looking a bit concerning with nearly the first quarter gone.

Worth a wee look at the table. Poor wee Partick actually thought they were strolling towards the title. Such a wee shame.

[Hej]

One point of contention with Dougie was swapping Quitongo and McGrattan over midway through the first half. Don't think that got the best of either of them. Jai's whole MO is beating someome on the outside and smacking a ball across the box. He would have had old man Reynolds on toast if we could get in behind the wingback

[TONofmemories]

Dougie slightly critical of McGrattan in his post match interview.

[irnbru]

19 minutes ago, Hej said:

One point of contention with Dougie was swapping Quitongo and McGrattan over midway through the first half. Don't think that got the best of either of them. Jai's whole MO is beating someome on the outside and smacking a ball across the box. He would have had old man Reynolds on toast if we could get in behind the wingback

He swapped Jai because they swapped their full backs. Didn't really work but seem the logic. The good thing was Dougie pushing Jai towards the cowshed at the end too after an obviously frustrating day for him. 

[TONofmemories]

Interesting language used throughout.

"Get Morton where they want to be this year"

LETS FUCKING GO

[Jamie_M]

53 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

Interesting language used throughout.

"Get Morton where they want to be this year"

LETS FUCKING GO

Aye, just watched and was about to comment similar.

"it was a no brainer for me to come here and try to help Morton get promoted."

Dougie's target is clear.

COME ON!

[SassenachTon]

Efe's a magical player. You never know if you're about to witness genius - or a trainwreck. Players like him make the game as exciting as a spin on the roulette wheel.

[EanieMeany]

Just listening to any of the recent signings’ first interviews tell you a huge amount about what Imrie has instilled and achieved.  Efe Ambrose, an AFCON winner with a host of club medals to go with that, was bursting with excitement about being here from day one and you seen again at full-time today how much he’s enjoying being here; Oakley was like a wee boy on Christmas Eve in his, even saying losing 4-0 with ICT made him want to come; Crawford in and being very clear what the aim is.

It’s impressive by any measure but when you consider what Dougie arrived to and how the previous few years (in particular) had went, it’s a genuinely astonishing achievement to transform the club like he has.
 

My belief is that hope is the lifeblood of smaller teams, even if you know deep down it’s in vain: the eternal belief that “next season, we’ll be good” is what keeps you going, always the next season. For me, the last vestiges of that had all but evaporated from Morton and was on the precipice of becoming terminal. If Dougie had came in and just made us sort of alright, really, and just done a steady but unremarkable job, it would still have been very welcome, but to implement such an existentially profound transformation from the off is an achievement that can’t be measured in trophies, but by god it would be so richly deserved if it resulted in one. 
 

If anything sums up how fuckin class Morton are, no matter how trying and demotivating it might have been over the years, it was that game at Parkhead. Imagine thinking their choreographed, performative shite was all there was? A handful of weirdos that probably still have to have their names written on the inside collar of their jackets, swaying back and forth occasionally and singing about the IRA passing as your “atmosphere”? Fuck that. Mon the fuckin Ton.

[Pedrodelawasp]

2 hours ago, Hej said:

Jai's whole MO is beating someome on the outside

As odd as it may sound, I think his most significant contributions have actually been in defending from the front, preventing counterattacks. He’s also been a nuisance for full backs when both he and his opponent are chasing a clearance towards a corner flag when we’ve been defending a lead and simply clearing our lines. I don’t think he’s got the same explosive acceleration as he once did that allowed him to annihilate most people on the half turn, and I’ve felt a good few times that he’s looked to knock the ball around a defender to then chase it but simply not had the speed on tap to get to it. That being said, I’m also not sure he’s been 100% fit for a few weeks, which may go some way towards explaining that.

[LargsTON]

I don't like whining after such a great result but the issues at the turnstiles seem to remain.  I finally convinced my daughter to come to a game (which she loved btw) and after arriving at around 1447 we didn't get into the ground until nearly 1510.  Pretty shambolic with a crowd of only 1800 odd.  I did hear our favourite steward ranting about something on her radio as I was queueing.  

[vikingTON]

If we're expecting larger crowds on the back of a good and successful team then we need to have the infrastructure in place to serve them. They're not and never will be fit for purpose.

[irnbru]

14 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

If we're expecting larger crowds on the back of a good and successful team then we need to have the infrastructure in place to serve them. They're not and never will be fit for purpose.

Only three working and a steward standing in front of one of them for some reason and people couldn't get by him. 

They obviously need sorted but we really don't help ourselves. 

[TONofmemories]

Probably was >2k when you factor in freebies.  A near >500 swing since our last game vs cove at home. It's a slow burner but we're getting somewhere.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

The winner is up on Facebook and I assume also Twitter. Absolute scenes! Great to see so many young kids going to the games, because as professed by the late, great Whitney Houston, they are our future!

Word up also for our heroic stewards who put their lives on the line stopping a mass pitch invasion by a handful of 10-year-olds.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

..... also, absolute schoolboy defending, pish poor for this level... firstly, allowing the ball to bounce in the penalty area, and then heading it across his own 6 yard box, WTF was he thinking, ha! Hartley will be absolutely raging with that, which is a nice wee added bonus. 

[TRVMP]

 

[Toby]

9 hours ago, LargsTON said:

I don't like whining after such a great result but the issues at the turnstiles seem to remain.  I finally convinced my daughter to come to a game (which she loved btw) and after arriving at around 1447 we didn't get into the ground until nearly 1510.  Pretty shambolic with a crowd of only 1800 odd.  I did hear our favourite steward ranting about something on her radio as I was queueing.  

I joined the queue at about 2:40 yesterday and it took until around 2:45 for that witch to appear with a key to open the (third, possibly fourth?) turnstile.

If they’re defective, I’d be quick to criticise the club for not getting them fixed as a matter of urgency, but just not bothering to use them until the final rush is bizarre.

There were two stewards on the gate when I walked past about 2pm, and two when I got in the ground. It would have made no difference to their workload to have all the gates active from the start, but why make things run smoothly when you can leave things until the last minute?

5 hours ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

The winner is up on Facebook and I assume also Twitter. Absolute scenes! Great to see so many young kids going to the games, because as professed by the late, great Whitney Houston, they are our future!

Word up also for our heroic stewards who put their lives on the line stopping a mass pitch invasion by a handful of 10-year-olds.

For all I’m quite vocal about the head steward in particular, I really don’t like slagging the stewards, believe it or not. I accept that they’re in a relatively unsatisfactory job and working crap hours when their pals are off work, in which they’re stringently governed by regulations, as I was for about half my life, so I do have my sympathies.

But that clip of them charging in front of the weans gets under my skin. No threat from the kids beyond absolute exuberance and what do they do? Everything they can do to block their view of the players celebrating at the climax of an exciting afternoon. It’s basically an act of utter contempt towards the folk who are paying their wages. The best part of their afternoon, and it’s ruined by the stewards, brilliant.

I suspect someone will be looking at this forum; that horrible, poisonous little woman will get her wings clipped again and she’ll be standing there with a put-on smile wishing us a safe journey home after the Ayr game, as always happens after she antagonises folk.

Just get her in the bin and spare us all that shite.

Other than that, a quality afternoon’s entertainment, if a bit nervy.

[EanieMeany]

On the subject of stewarding, the constant hassling of weans for standing at the front of the Cowshed at the Sinclair Steet fries my brain. There’s no reason whatsoever to stop people standing there, yet there’s a constant patrol of stewards going back and forth, telling off no more than about 10 young children dotted about the area off if they as much as set foot for a few seconds on the front path.

Leave them alone ffs, it’s not going to help the youngsters enjoy the experience if they’re constantly getting told off for nothing at all.

[The Bewilderedbeast]

I agree with the comments above about the standard of stewarding.

However, if we want more qualified, better trained stewards then the associated cost to the club will rise.

I get that it looks like overkill on occasions but something I did notice on Saturday was this.

My grandson wanted a picture with some of the  players, so I took him to the front of the shed to wait for the players warmup drill to end and come over to the trackside. Almost immediately a group of around 10 kids also turned up at the wall.

At least two of them immediately started to pelt the players with sweets, with one of them hailing his success in hitting Calvin Miller on the leg by shouting "got the cunt" Remember that this is our own players, not that it matters which players/match officials it is.

Now, I know that it was wean's of around 10-12, and it was only sweets (on this occasion) but there have been incidents of coins and small stones been thrown onto the park on the past, IIRC.

I don't disagree that some of the stewards could do considerably better, but there are other occasions when they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.