Greenoaktree Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 Today I turned back the clock 30+ years and went to Cappielow, Nice day , OK crowd , and correct result. However as this was my 1st time back for many years I couldnt help remember the old days . Im sure the sun was always warmer, the crowds were bigger and noiser, and the football was of a far better standard. Im not meaning to be critical, maybe you only remember the good things ... Interested to hear the comments for the 40+ers................................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Today I turned back the clock 30+ years and went to Cappielow, Nice day , OK crowd , and correct result. However as this was my 1st time back for many years I couldnt help remember the old days . Im sure the sun was always warmer, the crowds were bigger and noiser, and the football was of a far better standard. Im not meaning to be critical, maybe you only remember the good things ... Interested to hear the comments for the 40+ers................................ 12460[/snapback] Not sure about the weather, but I agreed with most of the rest. I'd say the standard in Scottish football is poorer generally. We'd had some poor teams over the years though. It's good to enjoy when things are on the up. With more like yourself coming back, the crowds will get bigger and noisier. Welcome back. tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forza ton Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 aye welcome back but where the f*** have u been for 30 years!? just oot the jail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cet homme charmant Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 I'd say players nowadays are generally much fitter and stronger that 20 or 30 years ago. Also, I believe teams today are far better organised and are much more tactically aware. Having said that I think that 30 years ago there were probably more skillful and gifted players around, perhaps because they learned their skills from the street and the park, and not on the training ground. All in all though, I think the Morton team of today would hump any team from the past, including the great Benny Rooney teams of the late 70s and early 80s, for the reasons given above. I also think however that football was more extertaining in the old days, also for the reasons given above. As the teams were less well organised this perhaps allowed the more skillful players to flourish and made the game better to watch. But, overall, I think strength and fitness will overcome skill alone, so that's why I think todays team is 'better' than those in the past. Although they may not be as entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargsTON Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 All in all though, I think the Morton team of today would hump any team from the past, including the great Benny Rooney teams of the late 70s and early 80s, for the reasons given above. 13220[/snapback] "CORNBEEF IS A BELLEND" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainMorton Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 But, overall, I think strength and fitness will overcome skill alone, so that's why I think todays team is 'better' than those in the past. Although they may not be as entertaining. 13220[/snapback] I'd rather watch a team that plays crappy football week in, week out and wins than a team that plays brilliant, entertaining football and gets beat every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmil Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Todays players are fitter, stronger and more organised but by and large there is little real "flair" which the punters love but which "coaches" kill in their efforts to play a controlled method type of football geared not to winning games but to ensuring that defeat is avoided at all cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom_McB Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 All in all though, I think the Morton team of today would hump any team from the past, including the great Benny Rooney teams of the late 70s and early 80s, for the reasons given above. 13220[/snapback] Been on the waccy baccy CHC? The Benny Rooney teams were fit and strong, and played great Football- it's a joy to watch the DVDs of those boys. There's always a tendency to hark back to a golden age. The crowds were bigger in the Rooney era- but- thirty years ago we were in the doldrums in the old Second division playing to poor crowds. Forty years ago we were recovering from a very poor run of form and coming into the Hal Stewart era. My first season- 1959-1960. We finished the season as the bottom club in senior footie. "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."The goal of Socialism is Communism- Lenin Je ne suis pas Marxiste : K Marx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cet homme charmant Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 All about opinions Tom. The Rooney teams of the late 70s and early 80s played great, entertaining football, absolutely no question about that whatsoever. In that we're in total agreement!! But do you REALLY think they were as fit as today's players? I'm thinking of Roddie Hutchison and Andy Ritchie here. Surely training techniques, diet, coaching etc, have improved in the last 25 years? So while I agree that they were probably better footballers and had more natural skill (Ritchie alone probably had more natural talent in his big toe that all of the current team put together), I still believe in the long run the greater strength, fitness and better tactical organisation of today would prevail. Do you think Andy Ritchie, with all of his outstanding natural ability, would be as great a player today as he was 25 years ago? I very much doubt it, because nowadays he'd be closed down much quicker and he'd have much less time on the ball. I doubt his workrate would be tolerated in the modern game either. I'm not saying today's players are better in the entertainment or ability sense. But on fitness, strenght and organisation, I think they're way ahead. And that would, in my opinion, make them prevail. We'll never know, of course, so in that sense it's a daft argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom_McB Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Ritchie- train? I would have hime on for the free kicks and corners alone. The day of the idiosyncratic player has probably gone Yes- the debate is always about opinions- like the Muhammad Ali vs The brown bomber stuff in boxing. "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."The goal of Socialism is Communism- Lenin Je ne suis pas Marxiste : K Marx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplyton Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Wonder if Ritchie would even make it as a professional footballer these days how many players of that ilke do you see in our game? How many coaches/scouts would recommend Andy for a trail if they saw him strutting his stuff in a youth/juniors match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianton Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 for all the things you are saying that andy didn't do,look at things HE DID DO.remember all the brilliant passing, freekicks ,ect ect,i would still have him in my team.ffs compare him to some of the fowards we have now.andy always was and always will be the man that would still be in my team any day."mr magic" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cet homme charmant Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 I agree 100% ianton.... Andy Ritchie was a fantastic player!!! I've never said otherwise, and I'm priveliged to have seen him at his brilliant best. But, in the modern game, I don't believe he would get nearly the same amount of time and space to create the opportunites to do the magic things he done then. He'd be closed down much quicker, and in the hectic pace of the modern game I fear the match would just pass him by. I'm absolutely sure he'd still be able to it now and again on pure skill alone, but not often enough, I fear. In today's game he'd be considered a passenger or a 'luxury' player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumpton Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Chic Charnley (poor man's Andy Ritchie with a violent twist) seemed to do ok at a certain level. p.s. I am NOT suggesting Charnley was as good as Ritchie. Note to self - be nice to the opposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianton Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 trumpton you need therapy off you go now........................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazed'n'confused Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 I dont think that really you can make a true comparison , after all if you moved that team from the late seventies early eighties to the present day , dont you think they would be as fit as the present day team as they would surely have "evolved" the same level of fitness as the present day team.? Different eras cant be fairly compared .The earlier team was a great and skilful side, the present day team has ,as far as I am concerened ,still to attain that status, they might well do time will tell and if they do will be a great Morton team in their own right as were great teams in the past. hope that makes some kind of sense! SNP - STRONGER FOR SCOTLAND Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmil Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 In the Ritchie years I remember my pals and I heading for Cappielow speculating in eager anticipation saying "what will big Andy do today?" Like many others I wonder if he could operate in todays type of football but I've got my memories of the magic that he managed to conjure in just a couple minutes to win games but ........ohhh the frustration at times waiting for him to become involved. Truely magical!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianton Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 yes jpmil that is what it was allabout.you will never forget all the moments of genius.just one shimmy,one dummy one goalkeeper saying what the f**k was that about especially roughy.how lucky we were.it was special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alibi Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Of course today's team would beat the Ritchie team. After all even the youngest of the Ritchie team must be at least 42 now.... Seriously though there is no comparison - today's team are a far lower standard than those guys at their peak. We thought Ritchie was unfit and fat at the time but look at the video of the goal against Aberdeen - I think he was slimmer then than I am now, and he could move when he wanted to. These guys were very fit. Ritchie was a one off and never performed at that level anywhere else apart from Morton. We were very very lucky to see him and to keep him for about 7 years. What an entertainer. "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." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morton4Me Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Alibi, you hit the nail on the head with one word "entertainer" Do you remember the free kick he scored with against Dundee Utd in the rain with minutes to go? He asked the ref if he scored would he blow for full time? He was some entertainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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