Match Preview/Thread - Morton vs Airdrieonians (24th February)

[Scott]

7 minutes ago, DumfriesTon said:

We got noticeably worse when Waters and Broadfoot came on. The downgrade from Strapp is mental. 

Gutsy performance at the end. Crawford and Power were excellent. Massive win.

That cameo from Broadfoot was the type we saw from him at the start of the season - really poor. He was great up until his recent injury so hopefully he finds form again as there was a few really poor errors. 

[RossMcC1874]

Hopefully just cramp for the players who came off, changes were always going to happen with so many games in a short space of time. 

[ChampTon]

Can't believe we get the tag of a dirty team. Complete hatchet man job from Airdrie, not helped by a completely useless official. Shout-out to the linesman who looks to have allow Garrity to score when he looked about 4 yards offside.

[Scott]

Anyone know the attendance today? I could be wrong but from where I was standing it didn’t seem as busy. 

[Cat10]

16 minutes ago, Scott said:

Anyone know the attendance today? I could be wrong but from where I was standing it didn’t seem as busy. 

2000

[RossMcC1874]

15 minutes ago, Scott said:

Anyone know the attendance today? I could be wrong but from where I was standing it didn’t seem as busy. 

2017 thought there might have been a bigger crowd. Again I thought the atmosphere was really flat other than a few games this season it's quite flat at cappielow considering how we are doing. 

[Cat10]

That was brutal today. The free flowing football that Airdrie play is a myth… first 20 minutes was like football from the 80’s and a ref failing to deal with and protect the players.

Oakleys yellow was a shocker from him

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Dougie just has class oozing out of him. Unlike just about every manager in the league he can still find some humility and respect for the opponent. Top bloke.  

 

[LargsTON]

1 hour ago, DumfriesTon said:

We got noticeably worse when Waters and Broadfoot came on. The downgrade from Strapp is mental. 

Gutsy performance at the end. Crawford and Power were excellent. Massive win.

That's extremely harsh on both players.  Airdrie were already in the ascendancy at that point. 

[LargsTON]

24 minutes ago, Cat10 said:

2000

That all?  Really disappointing if so considering the run we're on and Airdrie bringing around 300 of that.

[TONofmemories]

1 hour ago, Scott said:

That cameo from Broadfoot was the type we saw from him at the start of the season - really poor. He was great up until his recent injury so hopefully he finds form again as there was a few really poor errors. 

Stands to reason at their ages (power included) they need time. 

Power has been absolutely sensational since our fortunes have turned.

18 minutes ago, LargsTON said:

That all?  Really disappointing if so considering the run we're on and Airdrie bringing around 300 of that.

Was thinking the same during the game. 15 games unbeaten really deserves more 

[irnbru]

3 hours ago, Scott said:

That cameo from Broadfoot was the type we saw from him at the start of the season - really poor. He was great up until his recent injury so hopefully he finds form again as there was a few really poor errors. 

Tbf the whole team shape looked out of sorts and waters struggled too. Thought we were kicked off the park to an extent. 

[LargsTON]

Aside from the thuggery a few Airdrie players impressed me, notably the boy Hancock at left back.

[Scott]

6 minutes ago, LargsTON said:

Aside from the thuggery a few Airdrie players impressed me, notably the boy Hancock at left back.

Yeah, he’s a player I’ve liked the look of a few times this season. If we lose Strapp next season he’d be a good replacement. 

[dunning1874]

A massive win.

The tone for Airdrie’s performance was set by Taylor-Sinclair's hideous challenge on Crawford inside the first 5 minutes. The elbow only came up after the ball was already gone, it was an obviously deliberate attempt to elbow an opponent in the head in midair, it was as dangerous a challenge as you'll see on a football pitch and it was utterly negligent refereeing to only book him. They knew then they would get away with murder and carried on attempting it for the rest of the game.

You could see how fired up we were to overcome their thuggery and it was a tremendous delivery from Quitongo for the first. With the laughter at how far offside Garrity looked to be for the second at the time (turns out he wasn't) there wasn't enough focus on how good a finish it was, an exceptional strike.

When you've raced into a two goal lead that early you want the sting taken out the game rather than continuing to go at a million miles an hour and leaving huge gaps yourselves that can let the opposition back into the game, we did that well but as the half wore on I thought we got a bit too flat and were allowing them a bit too much room in midfield, for all that we still didn't look in much danger from open play.

Second half we looked right back in control early on and should have had it buried between Quitongo's header off the bar and the one cleared off the line from a corner, but we went noticeably downhill after the subs. That's not to say the subs were the wrong decision, with the way the referee had lost control of the game getting players on bookings off was definitely the right thing to do, but both Waters and Broadfoot had a pretty terrible time of it and they started getting some joy down that side.

Where they really took control of the game was in us losing Oakley as an outball, once again Taylor-Sinclair should have been off for the way he deliberately went after him and elbowed him off the park. He knew he was getting away with it and kept at it until he inevitably injured him. Garrity did what he could moved through the middle but he was breathing out his arse himself by that point with the running he'd done and it left them knowing they could pin us back.

A poor goal to lose, not sure who it was that lost their man, but we saw it out without another clear cut chance coming their way despite the additional 90 minutes of injury time. Would have been robbery if we'd dropped points there.

Cammy Blues by the way, what a performance. A lot of people praising Power and rightly so, he was excellent in possession, but the ground Blues covered defensively was ridiculous. Feels like every week lately you come away thinking that might have been his best game in a Morton shirt, he's in fantastic form and it's a real testament to his performance that the midfield still looked so good despite missing Wilson.

[Mr.Blue]

1 hour ago, dunning1874 said:

A massive win.

The tone for Airdrie’s performance was set by Taylor-Sinclair's hideous challenge on Crawford inside the first 5 minutes. The elbow only came up after the ball was already gone, it was an obviously deliberate attempt to elbow an opponent in the head in midair, it was as dangerous a challenge as you'll see on a football pitch and it was utterly negligent refereeing to only book him. They knew then they would get away with murder and carried on attempting it for the rest of the game.

You could see how fired up we were to overcome their thuggery and it was a tremendous delivery from Quitongo for the first. With the laughter at how far offside Garrity looked to be for the second at the time (turns out he wasn't) there wasn't enough focus on how good a finish it was, an exceptional strike.

When you've raced into a two goal lead that early you want the sting taken out the game rather than continuing to go at a million miles an hour and leaving huge gaps yourselves that can let the opposition back into the game, we did that well but as the half wore on I thought we got a bit too flat and were allowing them a bit too much room in midfield, for all that we still didn't look in much danger from open play.

Second half we looked right back in control early on and should have had it buried between Quitongo's header off the bar and the one cleared off the line from a corner, but we went noticeably downhill after the subs. That's not to say the subs were the wrong decision, with the way the referee had lost control of the game getting players on bookings off was definitely the right thing to do, but both Waters and Broadfoot had a pretty terrible time of it and they started getting some joy down that side.

Where they really took control of the game was in us losing Oakley as an outball, once again Taylor-Sinclair should have been off for the way he deliberately went after him and elbowed him off the park. He knew he was getting away with it and kept at it until he inevitably injured him. Garrity did what he could moved through the middle but he was breathing out his arse himself by that point with the running he'd done and it left them knowing they could pin us back.

A poor goal to lose, not sure who it was that lost their man, but we saw it out without another clear cut chance coming their way despite the additional 90 minutes of injury time. Would have been robbery if we'd dropped points there.

Cammy Blues by the way, what a performance. A lot of people praising Power and rightly so, he was excellent in possession, but the ground Blues covered defensively was ridiculous. Feels like every week lately you come away thinking that might have been his best game in a Morton shirt, he's in fantastic form and it's a real testament to his performance that the midfield still looked so good despite missing Wilson.

That's a great point re Blues. I think he's an easy target for the knicker wetters and boo boys a lot of the time but he's been very good recently out of position and yesterday he was excellent. I was worried when I saw Wilson was missing but Blues slotted in and had a great game.

I agree that Oakley going off helped Airdrie. That's the one area that I'd like to see us strengthen. Muirhead is a decent alternative and so is Jai but it would be good to have a like for like replacement. Not as easy as just going out and bringing a player like that in though.

[LargsTON]

Anyone heard any news on our injured players?   Looked to me that along with Muirhead and Wilson we're potentially missing Oakley and Crawford plus I know Strapp was subbed for being on a yellow but he was also subject of a very hefty challenge prior to going off.   Tuesday is massive now and I hope we take a large following as the team more than deserves it.  Currently trying to change my shifts.

[Toby]

Aye, Blues was absolutely outstanding yesterday, although I’d say we’re now well beyond the stage of him being a target of any boo boys, unless I’m just fortunate with where I stand at Cappielow.

On another note, probably the last time I can remember Morton’s administrative side being described as incompetent and “typical Morton” was around the time they apparently made an arse of Nadir Çiftçi’s work permit application.

Looking back, if we’d been successful with that, we’d probably never have seen George Oakley at Morton. That’s some silver lining.

[RossMcC1874]

The next 2-3 week are massive in terms of what will happen this season, playing all of the top three along with Inverness and the the cup game against Hearts, the whole squad is going to need to be used and let's hope Wilson and Muirhead arent anything long term injury wise. 

[Madton]

2 hours ago, LargsTON said:

Anyone heard any news on our injured players?   Looked to me that along with Muirhead and Wilson we're potentially missing Oakley and Crawford plus I know Strapp was subbed for being on a yellow but he was also subject of a very hefty challenge prior to going off.   Tuesday is massive now and I hope we take a large following as the team more than deserves it.  Currently trying to change my shifts.

Seen someone with a Muirhead surname reply on Facebook saying Robbie wasn't well so hopefully just a bit under the weather and nothing serious.