Underachievers XI

[BishopBrennan]

Something we spoke about in one of my WhatsApp groups recently - give me an XI of Morton players who you reckon underachieved in their career. 

I'll start by having Super Alex Williams up front. 

[TRVMP]

Dominic Shimmin. Strolled it at a quarter effort, a cut above almost every other defender in the league without breaking sweat, but didn't really want to be a footballer.

[Greacen2000]

Parfait Medou-Otye - looked like an absolute class act in the handful of games he played for us. Got injured then ended up at Kidderminster(where he also hardly played).  Apparently he had to retire early due to a heart condition

 

Kevin Thomas - His early career was held back by bad injuries but he really found his form here and was a cracking player for us - who could forget that sublime performance at love street.  His career never really recovered from the Christmas party incident with O’Boyle

 

Michael Tidser - maybe a bit of a harsh inclusion as he had a decent career, but I think he had the ability to have played at a higher level.  Moves to Rotherham & Falkirk didn’t work out for him, then he arguably showed a lack of ambition by taking the money to drop down to Kelty, thus spending the last few years of his career playing at a level well below his ability

Edited July 10 by Greacen2000

[Hej]

Jai Quitongo? Around the time of that Doncaster bid he looked like he was going to go on to be a real decent player. He was battering Premiership teams in the League Cup, had some amazing finishes, a proper physical handful of a player. Turned out to actually be the peak of his career.

[GiGi]

1 hour ago, Hej said:

Jai Quitongo? Around the time of that Doncaster bid he looked like he was going to go on to be a real decent player. He was battering Premiership teams in the League Cup, had some amazing finishes, a proper physical handful of a player. Turned out to actually be the peak of his career.

There was a purple patch of a few months where Quitongo was the most exciting Morton player since Williams. 

[Roger McQueen]

Alex Williams, without doubt. I would also say Peter Weatherson. Both of those players should have excelled at Morton and moved for significant money. 

John Morrow. He looked like he was a good player until a horrible injury took him out the game. 

Big Parfait was a tremendous player. 

 

[Roger McQueen]

We had two cracking keepers during the dark era of he who shall not be named. Matt Boswell and then Stewart Webster was it? Both looked like great keepers who could have gone on and done well in the game. 

[irnbru]

25 minutes ago, Roger McQueen said:

Alex Williams, without doubt. I would also say Peter Weatherson. Both of those players should have excelled at Morton and moved for significant money. 

John Morrow. He looked like he was a good player until a horrible injury took him out the game. 

Big Parfait was a tremendous player. 

 

Was Morrow not late twenties when he came to us? Decent player but not sure I'd put him in this category. 

[SpoonTon]

Mark Russell was pretty outstanding for an 18/19/20 year old, but never got better from there (he only got worse tbh).

Quitongo and Williams are clear picks. Jai never really fully got back from a couple of terrible knee injuries. Williams seems old and wise enough now to know where he went wrong. 

I think Paul McGowan should have had a better career than he did. 

[Hands of Cowan]

Denny Johnstone - had a great 1st spell but didn't do as good during 2nd spell (don't think he was the same after injury)

Robert Thomson - seemed more focused on his career as fireman

Jazz Jutla - just thought he was a better player than Championship standard

Jon Scullion - great wee player but controlling his weight was always his issue 

[Deego]

John Maisano probably another from the Williams era.

[The Bewilderedbeast]

Long time ago, but Ian Ferguson must be choice. He scored almost every time he played against us. We eventually sign him and he struggled badly, 1 goal I think.

[Roger McQueen]

1 hour ago, Hands of Cowan said:

Denny Johnstone - had a great 1st spell but didn't do as good during 2nd spell (don't think he was the same after injury)

Robert Thomson - seemed more focused on his career as fireman

Jazz Jutla - just thought he was a better player than Championship standard

Jon Scullion - great wee player but controlling his weight was always his issue 

Jazz Jutla was awful bar one game v Raith Rovers at home. He had the 45min's of his life and was subbed at half time due to a head knock yet was still MOM. Aside from that, rotten. 

 

1 hour ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Long time ago, but Ian Ferguson must be choice. He scored almost every time he played against us. We eventually sign him and he struggled badly, 1 goal I think.

Signed at the same time as Millen when Stark was bringing in experience. Also brought in Paul McDonald that season. Ferguson and Millen just never worked. Wonder what ever happened to that guy Millen. 

[SpoonTon]

3 hours ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Long time ago, but Ian Ferguson must be choice. He scored almost every time he played against us. We eventually sign him and he struggled badly, 1 goal I think.

I can't remember him scoring for us. At the time I considered him the worst player I'd ever seen in my life. I remember watching him warming up before a match down at Ayr - he scuffed every shot he hit (I couldn't believe I was watching a professional football player). Genuinely looked like he'd never played before. His career continued downhill after his short spell with us - the only things of note being a number of sendings off for violent conduct (he had pretty dangerous elbows).

[The Bewilderedbeast]

14 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

I can't remember him scoring for us. At the time I considered him the worst player I'd ever seen in my life. I remember watching him warming up before a match down at Ayr - he scuffed every shot he hit (I couldn't believe I was watching a professional football player). Genuinely looked like he'd never played before. His career continued downhill after his short spell with us - the only things of note being a number of sendings off for violent conduct (he had pretty dangerous elbows).

Possibly not , I thought he'd scored 1, but happy to be corrected, he looked like he didn't want to ne here.

Aani said, it seemed he was always scoring against us.

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

I have a memory of Ferguson scoring in the 6-2 defeat at Inverness which signalled the end of Billy Stark's reign as manager 

[Mr.Blue]

8 hours ago, Hej said:

Jai Quitongo? Around the time of that Doncaster bid he looked like he was going to go on to be a real decent player. He was battering Premiership teams in the League Cup, had some amazing finishes, a proper physical handful of a player. Turned out to actually be the peak of his career.

Jai for me. On his day he looked like a world beater and unplayable. I remember a game against st.mirren where he absolutely terrorised them on and off the ball. Shame injuries curtailed his progress and momentum.

[irnbru]

4 hours ago, Hands of Cowan said:

Denny Johnstone - had a great 1st spell but didn't do as good during 2nd spell (don't think he was the same after injury)

Robert Thomson - seemed more focused on his career as fireman

Jazz Jutla - just thought he was a better player than Championship standard

Jon Scullion - great wee player but controlling his weight was always his issue 

And also had very little ability to play football. 

[TRVMP]

4 hours ago, Deego said:

John Maisano probably another from the Williams era.

Flattered to deceive. I remember Cowboy subbing him off once and Arthur Montford absolutely losing his mind in the director's box, as though he was taking off peak Iniesta.

Edited July 10 by TRVMP

[mcintyre_gmfc]

Jamie Lindsay? He was very good with us, not sure where he is now but I thought he would play a fairly good level.