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Match Preview/Thread - Arbroath vs Morton (17th March)


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Only saw parts of the game last night. Best we've played in a long time and combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping prevents us from winning by 4/5. That said at 1-0 I was worried we were going to concede and wasn't surprised when it came. Schwake fucked it and he knew he fucked it. I don't have a problem with Imrie coming out and slating him after the game. Its that sort of management we have been screaming out for. Also folk complaining about his touchline antics, giving fans some verbals back etc is laughable.  He's done and is doing a fantastic job and only when we draw away to home some are complaining? Could be a sign of how high the standards are that we've set but overall a point away from home is fine. I do agree that Dougie has made some mistakes moreso in recent games with his formation and personell but it had to be remembered that as some have said about schwake, Dougie is a young manager and is learning the game. On the game Crawford should never have hit that penalty althgrear double save from Gats. Wasn't too sure that the disallowed goal was a foul on the keeper either but they are protected so much its bound to happen. 

To summarise. Those moaning need to calm the fuck down. Missed opportunity last night but still plenty to play for.

There's a storm on the horizon

And for that I can't see the sun

For I'll keep a waiting on the pavement

For the ice cream van to come

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7 hours ago, vikingTON said:

That's a wild take. Who was available to start in goal for us, back when we were in our one sub period at the start of the season? 

It's a reasonable point of view to not rate Schwake as the best among the Championship's goalkeepers right now. It's not reasonable to argue that we got it wrong - that overlooks the enormous number of points we would have chucked away until now, if we had got the common or garden haddy goalkeeper our starting budget made highly likely. Schwake is quite clearly a Championship calibre keeper - we could have got another total ringer like McElhone's mate instead. 

No wonder Imrie is having a go at fans when we're indulging in such utter revisionism. 

It's not revisionism. I've said for a while that you take the rough with the smooth with a young goalkeeper - and I've been kinder than many other around me at matches this season. There are plenty who have never tasted Schwake. A point of his loan is to try to improve on the weak parts of his game and it's far from the first time I've said this. I think he's a young goalkeeper with some decent strengths - and parts of his game are certainly compatible with this level. He could go onto have a decent career, but I don't actually think he's a decent Championship level keeper yet. That was tolerable when he was playing at his best, but over the last couple of months he's got into a sticky patch (which was always a risk) and it has cost us points. He has cost us goals in three of the last four matches.

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5 hours ago, irnbru said:

That's a load a shite. He made a bad mistake tonight but he's a solid enough keeper. Don't make him a scapegoat because of poor finishing. 

It’s not shite. I know he’s a young keeper but he does concede quite a few goals where he should have saved them. Last night all he had to do was hold the ball but he pretty much missed it entirely. One mistake, but he makes too many. If we had a video of every goal we have conceded, quite a few would be questionable. One example that looked like bad goalkeeping to me was a goal against Celtic, a shot from the edge of the area by Turnbull - Schwake seemed to sort of get his hands muddled up while diving. Not his worst error but there have been too many. There’s a decent keeper in there but he needs to work on his weaknesses. Wouldn’t be a burning issue if Blues had shown his usual reasonable competence at finishing last night

"Any nation given the opportunity to regain its national sovereignty and which then rejects it is so far beneath contempt that it is hard to put words to it."

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19 minutes ago, Alibi said:

It’s not shite. I know he’s a young keeper but he does concede quite a few goals where he should have saved them. Last night all he had to do was hold the ball but he pretty much missed it entirely. One mistake, but he makes too many. If we had a video of every goal we have conceded, quite a few would be questionable. One example that looked like bad goalkeeping to me was a goal against Celtic, a shot from the edge of the area by Turnbull - Schwake seemed to sort of get his hands muddled up while diving. Not his worst error but there have been too many. There’s a decent keeper in there but he needs to work on his weaknesses. Wouldn’t be a burning issue if Blues had shown his usual reasonable competence at finishing last night

That's a poor example. Turnbulls goal was a cracking finish tight into the corner if I remember right.

There's a storm on the horizon

And for that I can't see the sun

For I'll keep a waiting on the pavement

For the ice cream van to come

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Blues missed sitters, Crawford missed sitters, Oakley has missed sitters at key points at 1-1 last night and against Ayr and Mcgrattan hasn't been seen in a starting line up since his sitter against Cove at home was it? There's always going to be sitters missed in this league it's just a shame we had a seasons worth in one game last night, but it's unfair to pick and choose what sitters people get criticised for based on your opinion of the player. 

That was comfortably one of our best away performances of the season and easily our best performance against Arbroath that I can remember so game plan and team selection was absolutely fine for me. Execution at both ends of the pitch where it matters sadly let us down on the night, but on another night Schwake doesn't fumble that ball or we take one of our chances. 

I'd be much more worried and annoyed if we had been bullied yet again by Arbroath and looked like our season and performances were fluttering down the drain as usual in the final quarter. 

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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Yeah Schwake made one costly mistake. Ali Crawford made several and not for the first time. Blues missed his share of unforgivable sitters as well but the two of them are untouchable for some reason. 

 

Peter Weatherson is the greatest player since Ritchie, and should be assigned 'chairman for life' 


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2 hours ago, SpoonTon said:

It's not revisionism. I've said for a while that you take the rough with the smooth with a young goalkeeper - and I've been kinder than many other around me at matches this season. There are plenty who have never tasted Schwake. A point of his loan is to try to improve on the weak parts of his game and it's far from the first time I've said this. I think he's a young goalkeeper with some decent strengths - and parts of his game are certainly compatible with this level. He could go onto have a decent career, but I don't actually think he's a decent Championship level keeper yet. That was tolerable when he was playing at his best, but over the last couple of months he's got into a sticky patch (which was always a risk) and it has cost us points. He has cost us goals in three of the last four matches.

Absolutely none of this supports your assertion that we got the goalkeeper wrong this season. Schwake was brought in, back in August, when Cappie the Cat was one injury away from pulling on the jersey. Imrie was working with a reduced budget and was relying on hauners from Martindale just to put a team together: we could have got far worse - and did with that sand-dancer Kabia.

Schwake has been a key part in the club effortlessly meeting its target at the start of this campaign. If we had really made a mistake in picking a goalkeeper then we'd be 15 points worse off than we are now and wouldn't have one of the strongest defensive records in the league. 

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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17 minutes ago, port-ton said:

Blues missed sitters, Crawford missed sitters, Oakley has missed sitters at key points at 1-1 last night and against Ayr and Mcgrattan hasn't been seen in a starting line up since his sitter against Cove at home was it? There's always going to be sitters missed in this league it's just a shame we had a seasons worth in one game last night, but it's unfair to pick and choose what sitters people get criticised for based on your opinion of the player. 

All players miss sitters, yes. Ali Crawford missed three and a penalty, having also missed one against Ayr and failed to take a very good chance against Queen's Park as well, albeit that one wasn't quite in the sitter category. No other player has passed up six gilt edged chances in four games while scoring none and being dreadful in their all round play as well.

It's the double standard people have an issue with here: if McGrattan is going to be bombed out for that one mistake, and I don't think he could complain about being dropped after that game albeit I wouldn't have done so with Quitongo injured, why is Ali Crawford getting 90 minutes despite costing us more points in four games than Schwake has all season? That's looking at chances alone, before even taking into account being the obvious weak link in the overall performance as well, while we subbed Robbie Crawford who was the best player on the park.

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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7 hours ago, irnbru said:

That's a load a shite. He made a bad mistake tonight but he's a solid enough keeper. Don't make him a scapegoat because of poor finishing. 

If you read my original post, then I've also said that the likes of Blues and Crawford's sitters are as equally to blame. 

He makes too many mistakes. At the moment, he's as good for a goal a game. Even yesterday in the last kick of the 1st half, he fumbled the ball and the Arbroath player has missed a sitter. He's not Ramsbottom levels of bad like someone else said above though. 

He'll get us through to the end of the season but it's a position where we should be having a complete reset in the Summer. Two competent goalkeepers who can fight for the #1. Unfortunately, we just don't have a credible backup.

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4 minutes ago, dunning1874 said:

All players miss sitters, yes. Ali Crawford missed three and a penalty, having also missed one against Ayr and failed to take a very good chance against Queen's Park as well, albeit that one wasn't quite in the sitter category. No other player has passed up six gilt edged chances in four games while scoring none and being dreadful in their all round play as well.

It's the double standard people have an issue with here: if McGrattan is going to be bombed out for that one mistake, and I don't think he could complain about being dropped after that game albeit I wouldn't have done so with Quitongo injured, why is Ali Crawford getting 90 minutes despite costing us more points in four games than Schwake has all season? That's looking at chances alone, before even taking into account being the obvious weak link in the overall performance as well, while we subbed Robbie Crawford who was the best player on the park.

We have no idea if Imrie will drop Ali Crawford after last night (he probably won't but we at least need to give him the chance before criticising him for it given 4 of the 6 missed chances you mention only happened last night) 

You'll hear no arguments from me that Mcgrattan should start most weeks and has been harshly treated but we didn't miss him at all last night unlike in previous weeks. The qualities mcgrattan brings to the team were there in abundance in the performance last night. 

I've no problem with the subs that were made either. Our response to conceding a potentially heart breaking and demoralising equaliser from a goalkeeping error was one of the most impressive I have seen in a long time, as we piled on the pressure and created great chance after chance (with Ali Crawford on the pitch) when it would have been so easy to feel sorry for ourselves. 

We brought in someone with Ali Crawfords skillset to help us beat these bottom teams who we can never break down or beat and the team did that much better last night and at times it was down to him doing things that no one else in our squad can do. It wouldn't surprise me if he shows up a lot more in the highlights than people remember. 

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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I think there was a huge amount of knicker wetting on here last night. If I'd chipped in with my pearls of wisdom right after the game, I'd probably have been one of them as well. But having calmed down a bit and slept on it, I maybe now have a bit more perspective. 

In insolation, a draw away to a team battling hard against relegation isn't a disaster, but of course the manner of it was hugely disappointing. We should have absolutely pumped them off the park. The fact we didn't was down to a combination of bad luck, excellent goalkeeping, poor finishing, and an individual howler. You don't always get what you deserve, and last night was a perfect example.

Of course, after a game like that it's normal to focus on the negatives and overlook the positives. But on reflection, there were some positives. Poor finishing aside, I think that was our best attacking performance on the road this season. On another night, we could easily have scored 3 or 4. Oakley remains a revelation, and there were some other really good individual performances, e.g. Muirhead and Robbie Crawford. 

Hugely disappointing result, but not a terrible performance at all, notwithstanding the goalkeeping howler and our wastefulness in front of goal.

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I think the problem with Schwake is that he has a tendency to parry the ball rather than catching it. Against Dundee in the tv game, we nearly lost a goal where he palmed the ball out straight to one of their opponents layers. Got away with that one as their striker somehow managed to bundle it past the post. There have been other similar incidents. Needs to work on that and try to get the ball out the danger area if he can’t get both hands on it. Last night I think he was trying to push the ball outwards but didn’t get a firm hand on it.

Regarding the Turnbull goal against Celtic, maybe not the best example to have raised, but if you watch the replay there is something odd about which hand he tries to get to the ball with. I can understand that because most folk have a preferred side to dive to. I find diving to my left a bit awkward.

What I do think Schwake is good at is taking high balls - seems happy to collect them before they drop to a level where anyone can get a head to them. He needs to work on his weaknesses & reinforce his strengths. Had our defence prevented that header across goal last night, we wouldn’t be talking about goalkeeping issues. Or had we taken our many chances.

The response after losing the goal was superb, pressing and pushing forward. Why weren’t we doing that the whole game? For a time we seemed to sit back and hoof high balls. The whole team needs to play to our strengths. That is when we are at our best.

"Any nation given the opportunity to regain its national sovereignty and which then rejects it is so far beneath contempt that it is hard to put words to it."

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3 hours ago, Alibi said:

It’s not shite. I know he’s a young keeper but he does concede quite a few goals where he should have saved them. Last night all he had to do was hold the ball but he pretty much missed it entirely. One mistake, but he makes too many. If we had a video of every goal we have conceded, quite a few would be questionable. One example that looked like bad goalkeeping to me was a goal against Celtic, a shot from the edge of the area by Turnbull - Schwake seemed to sort of get his hands muddled up while diving. Not his worst error but there have been too many. There’s a decent keeper in there but he needs to work on his weaknesses. Wouldn’t be a burning issue if Blues had shown his usual reasonable competence at finishing last night

It really is. 

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Just a simple question - who signed Schwake and who didn’t sign a back-up keeper? If he was already lacking in confidence as has been muted, then I suggest he won’t even want to go on the pitch for the rest of the season.
People are wondering why certain underperforming players are starting ahead of the likes of McGrattan. My wife said last night that Imrie must’ve promised those colleagues game time to convince them to join Morton, otherwise he couldn’t have signed them. That could explain him blaming Schwake for dropping two points and failing to mention A. Crawford, who he allowed to take the penalty and free kicks, which caused great upset to Muirhead, who angrily grabbed the ball off him for the final free kick of the match. Muirhead was bang in form and would’ve scored, Crawford had missed 3 sitters and looked certain not to score. He didn’t take it due to being confident, but rather as a risk that if he scored it would build his confidence and justify Dougie’s insistence in playing him, hence Dougie’s rage and deflection of the blame. Neither Ali Crawford or Brian Schwake were to blame for the dropped points, that falls on one man.

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2 hours ago, vikingTON said:

Absolutely none of this supports your assertion that we got the goalkeeper wrong this season. Schwake was brought in, back in August, when Cappie the Cat was one injury away from pulling on the jersey. Imrie was working with a reduced budget and was relying on hauners from Martindale just to put a team together: we could have got far worse - and did with that sand-dancer Kabia.

Schwake has been a key part in the club effortlessly meeting its target at the start of this campaign. If we had really made a mistake in picking a goalkeeper then we'd be 15 points worse off than we are now and wouldn't have one of the strongest defensive records in the league. 

Schwake was signed in the middle of June. If rumours are to be believed, Jack Hamilton would've re-signed if we had waited a wee bit longer. There would have been other options as well. 

I don't blame Imrie for wanting to get a goalkeeper in early enough. It's a tough thing to do to go with one proper first team keeper and get that selection right and he made a judgement. His signings have been, on the whole, excellent. And he's doing a tremendous job. I'm not weighing in with heavy criticism here, but I don't think he got this one right. Schwake hasn't been a key part of what we've achieved - I think he's held us back a bit (not by a massive amount, but we have some good Championship level players and he isn't one of them at this moment in time).

3 hours ago, Mr.Blue said:

That's a poor example. Turnbulls goal was a cracking finish tight into the corner if I remember right.

It's not totally a poor example. His footwork isn't great at that goal and it has a knock on effect on getting his hands down to it. A top goalkeeper doesn't concede that, the shot didn't have enough power for that. 

But we're not taking about the top level here - most Championship level goalkeepers would struggle with shots like that. So it's a good example of a difference between goalkeepers at our level and higher level goalkeepers, but not something to beat Schwake up with really. Although, it would be helpful if he was better at things like that to make up for some of his more obvious weaknesses. 

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13 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

Just a simple question - who signed Schwake and who didn’t sign a back-up keeper? If he was already lacking in confidence as has been muted, then I suggest he won’t even want to go on the pitch for the rest of the season.
 

We did sign a backup keeper, you absolute helmet. 

15 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

My wife said last night that Imrie must’ve promised those colleagues game time to convince them to join Morton, otherwise he couldn’t have signed them. 

Shite analytical skills must be contagious in your household then. 

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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2 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

Schwake was signed in the middle of June. If rumours are to be believed, Jack Hamilton would've re-signed if we had waited a wee bit longer. There would have been other options as well. 

I don't blame Imrie for wanting to get a goalkeeper in early enough. It's a tough thing to do to go with one proper first team keeper and get that selection right and he made a judgement. His signings have been, on the whole, excellent. And he's doing a tremendous job. I'm not weighing in with heavy criticism here, but I don't think he got this one right. Schwake hasn't been a key part of what we've achieved - I think he's held us back a bit (not by a massive amount, but we have some good Championship level players and he isn't one of them at this moment in time).

It's not totally a poor example. His footwork isn't great at that goal and it has a knock on effect on getting his hands down to it. A top goalkeeper doesn't concede that, the shot didn't have enough power for that. 

But we're not taking about the top level here - most Championship level goalkeepers would struggle with shots like that. So it's a good example of a difference between goalkeepers at our level and higher level goalkeepers, but not something to beat Schwake up with really. Although, it would be helpful if he was better at things like that to make up for some of his more obvious weaknesses. 

Hamilton was waiting to see if St Johnstone were relegated as they would be offering him a deal if so and he wouldn't be resigning with us. They stayed up and he agreed to resign with us the same week Dougie's budget was slashed and our offer to Hamilton was reduced so he rejected it. Schwake was always the back up and cheaper option to Hamilton and he was brought in later that same week. 

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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4 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

Schwake was signed in the middle of June. If rumours are to be believed, Jack Hamilton would've re-signed if we had waited a wee bit longer. There would have been other options as well. 

I don't blame Imrie for wanting to get a goalkeeper in early enough. It's a tough thing to do to go with one proper first team keeper and get that selection right and he made a judgement. His signings have been, on the whole, excellent. And he's doing a tremendous job. I'm not weighing in with heavy criticism here, but I don't think he got this one right.

Why would Hamilton have re-signed given we had less money in our budget than before? While Hamilton was exercising his freedom of contract over the summer and training with Premiership clubs, it would have been completely moronic for Imrie to just not sign a goalkeeper, on the offchance that Hamilton would return. 

The Schwake deal with Livingston was that other goalkeeping option - and there is absolutely no grounds to state that we got that wrong. 

 

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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8 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

Schwake hasn't been a key part of what we've achieved - I think he's held us back a bit (not by a massive amount, but we have some good Championship level players and he isn't one of them at this moment in time).

You do not get as solid a defensive record as we have this season, without a goalkeeper who is fundamentally competent at their job. It is an integral part of the defensive unit.

Who are these objectively good players - ones that other teams in the division would have signed and put in their starting eleven? Strapp and Grimshaw are the only two standouts. Some of our key players were cast-offs from Queen's Park over the summer, and while Oakley has been excellent, it was almost certainly a scramble between ourselves and Hamilton - bottom of the table - to sign him at the time of his departure. Nobody was swooping for Muirhead last summer given his record in front of goal. Baird is with us and Ayr fans prefer to have Sean fucking McGinty instead - while they're wrong on that score, it underlines that he's a solid Championship option and nothing more than that.

There is a huge amount of revisionism on display here. People have forgotten the absolute nick the club was in last summer, and have also forgotten the historic level of a group of players who are performing near their peak under Imrie. 

 

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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25 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Shite analytical skills must be contagious in your household then. 

It’s an observation based on common sense and watching the match, which you did not so your “fact based analysis” can’t be used in this instance. If you don’t think this reasoning for favouring lesser performers over players who were essential parts of our good runs this season has substance, then could you offer another reason instead of your persistent happy clapping?

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