Pre-Season

[Gmfcrg]

How we looking from general play, is there a hint of a good football tactic through the team? I can imagine so with the players signed and playing.

how about the new forwards, more so Davies? Look forward to seeing him more on Tuesday.

[Jamie_M]

Lamar back on for Lachlan

 

[Jamie_M]

1 nil. Bearne cross for Lamar to head home.

[Scapaflow]

1 nil ton Reynolds

[Jamie_M]

FT.

[ChampTon]

Nice to get a win and a goal for Lamar too. Any other suggestions on the Trialist family?

[GodEmperorGunning]

Did a writeup on each player for my brother who didn't see the game but as a lot of people couldn't make the game I thought I'd share it here. Keep in mind this is only my opinion so you may disagree, and that's fine. I tried to be optimistic with my assessments since half the squad have only trained for a handful of days and don't know each other.

---

 

Mullen (45 minutes) - Held everything thrown at him, had his angles covered, never looked in danger - what we've come to expect from him

Murdoch (Youth academy keeper, 45 minutes) - Still too small and raw to play at our level, had a wobbly moment where he scuffed the ball onto his own bar (chance was offside, but point stands). After settling in he did well at shot stopping including a good hold on a powerful shot at the middle of the goal going over his head height.

Ballantyne (RB, subbed back on as LB towards the end, 70 minutes~) - Looked good enough, did work going forward but QoS didn't really attack much down his side. Handled what was thrown at him, but with QoS's style of play where they pass the ball around the edge of the box, we didn't get a good chance to see how he handles being taken on consistently. Did well at left back when he came back on to play there, but didn't get much time to have a look at him out there.

Wilson (RB, 45 minutes) - Not his natural position, but he would invert frequently and make his way to his normal deep midfield territory to look for progressive passes. He didn't have to deal with much defensively, but he's already a known quantity at RB as he was shafted and stuck there a couple of times last season. Capable and handy, hope to see him centrally when we get a couple more additions in the defence.

Zak Delaney (Trial LB, 70 minutes~) - A few mistakes in the first 30 minutes, misplaces passes and letting the ball run across him, misjudging it, only for it to roll out of play. After he settled in, he looked solid defensively and had some great passages of play bouncing the ball back and forth off Garrity, where he'd hit the byline on the edge of the box and look for a low driven ball in or a cut back. Played an excellent pass through to Davies to put him in 1 on 1 with the keeper, great vision and weight on the ball. From what I've seen because he looks capable, but would need a better look at him to really tell. I'd take him if we don't have a better option.

Brynn Sinclair (LCB, 60 minutes~) - Probably our best trialist of the three over the course of the game. Looks young, has good pace and strength about him. Made a couple of mistakes early but comfortably handled what QoS's pacey forwards were throwing at him. He may struggle against a target man but obviously couldn't tell because QoS didn't field one at all, but that's where you'd hope Baird would be allocated to deal with the physicality. He had a couple of bursting runs forward and actively looked for a forward pass when receiving - a breath of fresh air for Morton fans as we constantly seemed to be looking sideways or backwards when we had the ball with our Centre Halves.

Broadfoot (RCB 60 minutes~) - Comfortable enough - still prone to pushing forward to challenge for a ball he has no chance of winning, only to leave a gap in the defence that a midfielder has to bust a gut to try to recover. If we have him come on with his experience to see games out, he may do fine, but I'd still not want him starting the majority of our games.

Baird (RCB, 45 minutes) - The usual, nothing notable - did his job well, held his own and controlled the game from the back.

Unknown Trialist (Maybe called Lachlan?) (CDM, 70 minutes~) - The weakest of the trialists - he looks young, raw, not that confident or coordinated on the ball. He didn't make any howlers and didn't look totally out of his depth but I don't see him being up for Championship football. He didn't shy away from the ball but didn't really do anything with it either.

Gillespie (CDM, 60 minutes~) - Had a solid game, came short for passes, looked to distribute the ball out wide and fought for second balls well. Didn't have a strong partner with him at CDM for most of the game due to being alongside the trialist but he did well with the situation he was in.

Blues (CM/CAM, 45 minutes) - Did well starting deeper when he first came on for Gillespie, pushed forward when Lyall made his way off in the 2nd half. As one of the people who thinks the stick he gets is unwarranted, I'd say he did his usual job this game. Nothing special, a solid 6-7/10 display as you'd come to expect, doing a lot of the running in the midfield to cut passing lanes and stop the opponents progressing - the thankless work that often goes unnoticed.

Lyall (CM/CAM, 65 minutes~) - Good going forward and carried the ball well from midfield to attack, releasing it to the wide players and making his way to the edge of the box. I'd need to see more obviously, but he seems like a capable enough replacement for Crawford, maybe with slightly less stamina and less pressing (possibly because we now have pacey forwards with higher work rates than Oakley and Muirhead who take on the role of pressing a bit more)

Bearne (RW, 90 minutes) - Same as what we saw last season, a lot of ability and potential in there but is too lightweight to hold his own against some of the bigger and more physical opposition. He has a tendency to cut back onto his left and cross that their fullback started reading, so he did end up switching it up a few times, trying to either hit it with his right or cut across the byline, which worked well, especially for his assist. Needs to find his range for corners as 2 were overhit and 1 hit the first man but other than that, did well enough.

Garrity (LW, 45 minutes) - Worked well with Delaney in those passing triangles and 1-2s they set up, really should have put away the chance he smashed off the bar, but generally a great performance. If he can keep his confidence up and get his shooting from the edge of the box to be more consistent, it might be his season to try to make the left wing position his own (but this may be a challenge with Reynolds looking better from the left wing than he did through the middle)

O'Boy (RW/CM, 45 minutes) - Did well, played the ball about nicely and make a few great runs to give us space in the middle. Did well to exploit the right flank and run onto balls through from Wilson, Davies or Blues. Not much more to say on the subject other than he showed a lot of the same qualities that he showed in his cameos last season before being sent out on loan.

Lamar (ST/LW, 55 minutes~) - Has a lot of pace and gets himself about - obviously it's his first game at this level so he was feeling the game out to start with so I can't judge too harshly, but he didn't seem too effective through the middle. When he came back on and moved out to the left he looked a lot more effective, with pace and trickery allowing him to beat full backs and look for killer balls across the 6 yard box. Took his header well, but in reality it was all down to an excellent cross. In addition, their academy keeper standing still waiting for the ball to somehow reach him also helped. Need to see more to judge properly but looks like a decent bit of business if he can find his feet. 

Davies (ST, 45 minutes) - If he can adapt to the game played up here, he will be a great asset. His pace is immense, he manages to get a good couple of yards on his defenders within a couple of seconds when running in behind - which could be seen by his chance he had 1 on 1, which the keeper did well to get a foot to. If he had finished that, I reckon a lot of people would have been a lot more impressed, but it was as much a great save as it was a mediocre shot, but he knew he had to do better as soon as he hit it, so it's just up to him to do better in those situations in future. Just like Lamar and the trialists, need to see more of him to full judge, but looks competent and full of energy.

Edited June 29 by GodEmperorGunning

[DumfriesTon]

Impressed by Reynolds and Lyall. Centre half trialist was decent and the left back was alright - worth having another look at them.

Midfield trialist looked out his depth though. On that showing, wouldn't sign. 

Nice to have actual pace in the forward areas now. Reynolds and Davies very quick. Still think we need an Oakley style #9 though. 

[TRVMP]

2 hours ago, GodEmperorGunning said:

ratings

Good write-up. It runs in the family

If Davies has pace and positioning in his locker a combination of coaching and confidence will see him come good.

The center-back (Bryn? Flynn?) sounds worth a look, we could really use one more.

[port-ton]

Thought the centre back did everything that was asked of him. Two footed, Defended well, covered the spaces of his other defenders well and was better on the ball than Baird or O’Connor have been for us. Hard to tell when it’s just a friendly against league one opposition. Think his name was Ryan if I heard dougie correctly.

the left back Delaney didn’t have a good game but apparently he was quite well thought of at Arbroath so maybe he will get another chance.

the central midfielder unfortunately looked out his depth and he looked like he knew it when he was subbed off.

[macca937]

10 minutes ago, port-ton said:

Thought the centre back did everything that was asked of him. Two footed, Defended well, covered the spaces of his other defenders well and was better on the ball than Baird or O’Connor have been for us. Hard to tell when it’s just a friendly against league one opposition. Think his name was Ryan if I heard dougie correctly.

the left back Delaney didn’t have a good game but apparently he was quite well thought of at Arbroath so maybe he will get another chance.

the central midfielder unfortunately looked out his depth and he looked like he knew it when he was subbed off.

Is that who the left back was? Doesn’t look like him from time at Arbroath. Looked more like a skinny Weatherson lol. Thought he was ok tbf 

[mcintyre_gmfc]

Hard to disagree with the above post. No player really stood out - Bearne and Garrity probably the best of our best players in each half. Broadfoot playing out from the back gives me the fear though, far too slack with his distribution. Hopefully we can have the other players back for Tuesday along with another signing or 2 to see everyone getting a run out. 
 

Decent crowd today, the Main Stand was packed. 

[GodEmperorGunning]

I'm 99% sure I've worked out the CB -  appears to be Brynn Sinclair. Big Kiwi lad who has been playing at Petone FC in Wellington for the last 2 and a bit years. Strange that he's over here but who knows how/why we found him (or he found us).
 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/brynn-sinclair/profil/spieler/900667

[TRVMP]

https://www.capitalfootball.org.nz/fixtures-results/senior-mens/mens-central-league

You can use this to filter to just Petone's games from this year. Looks like he was getting a few minutes here and there as a sub before starting, scoring, and getting two yellows in a 3-1 home defeat to Western Suburbs at the end of April. That seems to be his final appearance.

Incredibly random for him to be at a pretty poor side in NZ (they have regional leagues that culminate in a national championship group; while Petone did qualify for that, they finished with 1 point from their 9 games) and not a starter, then wind up in Greenock, and not look at all out of place against a League One team.

edit: His LinkedIn has interests in Petone, some coaching school, and East Kilbride FC.

Edited June 29 by TRVMP

[Jamie_M]

22 minutes ago, GodEmperorGunning said:

I'm 99% sure I've worked out the CB -  appears to be Brynn Sinclair. Big Kiwi lad who has been playing at Petone FC in Wellington for the last 2 and a bit years. Strange that he's over here but who knows how/why we found him (or he found us).
 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/brynn-sinclair/profil/spieler/900667

Yeah, looks spot on.

Random.

I guess there's plenty of publicity from last year that if you are a big defender looking for a club, rocking up at Morton will get you a trial and a run out in some friendlies.

[TRVMP]

"Brynn" and "Lachlan", though. I'm calling for a complete and total shutdown of Kiwi first names until we figure out what's going on.

(The midfielder may be Lachlan McGregor of North Wellington, the one who didn't have a good game.) 

[SassenachTon]

I reckon that more Kiwis would be an asset. We need a Morton Haka at the start of every game.

[dazza]

The socks are a different shade of blue from the blue on the top. Might be a pretty minor thing. But it should be the same. 

[Mr.Blue]

5 hours ago, dazza said:

The socks are a different shade of blue from the blue on the top. Might be a pretty minor thing. But it should be the same. 

I noticed this as well.

[standman]

Where’s King? Not on the bench again tonight