Morton Catch-Up

 

No rest for the wicked and we face Morton at the Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday night, the game kicking-off at 7:00pm with live streaming available from Caley Jags TV. In this cut-throat league we have got to the stage where a play-off slot is achievable. Unfortunately, that's more likely at the wrong end of the table although both options are still available with only ten games left for us. We could go a long way to relieving some of the pressure on ourselves by beating Morton who have fallen just below us in the table, but we are Caley Jags and we don't take the easy options.

		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1.	Hearts	19	13	3	3	46	21	25	42
2.	Raith Rovers	16	8	3	5	32	24	8	27
3.	Dunfermline	17	7	6	4	26	19	7	27
4.	Queen of the South	19	8	3	8	30	37	-7	27
5.	Dundee	17	6	6	5	31	32	-1	24
6.	Arbroath	19	5	6	8	17	24	-7	21
7.	Inverness CT	17	4	8	5	25	22	3	20
8.	Ayr United	17	5	5	7	22	21	1	20
9.	Morton	18	4	7	7	16	24	-8	19
10.	Alloa Athletic	19	3	5	11	21	42	-21	14

 

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

 

Last 10 Competitive Meetings against Morton back to April 2018

2 - 2 (A)

3 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

5 - 0 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 0 (A)

On Saturday we battled from behind to earn a draw at Alloa after Innes Cameron had given the hosts the lead. Nikolay Todorov replied for the Caley Jags before the Interval and that's how it ended. Both keepers made decent saves and that's the reason there was no further scoring. Well that and a couple of shocking misses. Good to see Lewis Toshney involved with the squad, even it was just sitting on the bench. His experience could be useful in the final few games of the season.

Since drawing 2-2 with us in January, Morton have failed to win in five games although a couple of deserved draws with Hearts and Dundee have been undermined by poor results against Arbroath and Raith Rovers. However a 0-2 defeat from Ayr United at the weekend has dumped Morton below Ayr and Inverness although there is only one point in it. 

Both sides are in a rut at the moment. Neither side has an out and out goal scorer, both sides have only four wins and are flirting with the relegation zone and both sides need the points. What could possibly go wrong?

There is one other game tonight in the Championship as Raith Rovers take on Ayr United at Stark's Park which is also a 7:00pm kick-off. Dunfermline v Dundee is postponed due to a covid outbreak at East End Park with players having to self isolate.

***Latest Team News***

Neil McCann: We have a doubt over Cameron Harper who was precautionarily substituted at Alloa. Better news is that Aaron Doran is back training. Todorov and Sutherland are our top scorers this season with five apiece and Raith bound James Keatings has four. Scott Allardice is our most booked player with five yellow's.

Antone McElhone used these players in the home defeat to Ayr United: McAdams, Ledger, McLean, McGinty, Strapp (Muirhead 50′), Jacobs, McGuffie (Johnson 65′), Colville (Sterling 65′), Blues, Nesbitt, Salkeld.

Left back Lewis Strapp is a doubt for Morton after he was injured in the game against Ayr United where Robbie Muirhead replaced him after fifty minutes. A foot injury could see Strapp miss this one.

Kalvin Orsi, Cameron Blues and Craig McGuffie are the Ton's top scorers with three goals each this season.

 

 

This post has been promoted to an article

Relegation and a part time club is looking likely. I can’t say since we joined the leagues away back other than some of the stuff Balthaca played have I seen us looking so devoid of ideas. The play was slow and uninspiring. Players like Mcgregor Daniel McKay always looked so promising in the past. Something seems to Have gone wrong   Is this a case of McCanns coaching ideas. Interestingly the commentator said he had no time before the hearts game in which we did quite well against top of league team. Now he’s had time we look abysmal. 

Lets face it, The players we have are no better than than the teams around us in the Championship, And... are way poorer than the top 4 or 5 teams, The signings we have made have made the team quality lower tan ever, And management can not compensate for this.

Todarov,Sutherland and Storey will never ever be regular scoring players, Oh for an Ian Stewart.

 

1 minute ago, ymip said:

A club in absolute freefall. Mind boggling that wealthy shareholders stand idly by and watch the club spiral into oblivion. Would be good to hear how Mr Gardiner suggests we extricate ourselves from this current predicament. I'm all ears.

Absolutely agree, time for some hard truths as how we plan to move forward.

Win on Friday night and we will only be 5pts off 2nd place.  Anything can happen in this league but that was rank tonight, I'm afraid.  

7 minutes ago, Satan said:

I recall possession football with no penetration then being picked off by what we deemed were lesser teams, time and time again.

Sounds familiar?

Definitely.

I don’t know where the problem lies. Do we think we are better than we are? Do we think we can’t go down? Are the players affected by the off field issues? Are there issues off the park we don’t know about?

We need to get a grip, and fast.

We have decent players but are lacking the cutting edge that we should be capable of.

We should not turn on McCann. He’s come in at a difficult time, but I agree that trying to change the style of play at this stage is not sensible. We need to play to our strengths and go back to the 4 2 3 1 that served us reasonably well up until Christmas.

If we can keep Doran fit and get better deliveries to the front players, we can turn this round, but it will be a challenge.

At least the league is tight and a few good results can make a big difference.

But everyone at the club needs to accept the reality: we are in relegation trouble.  

Edited March 9, 20215 yr by Robert

1 minute ago, Satan said:

I recall possession football with no penetration then being picked off by what we deemed were lesser teams, time and time again.

Sounds familiar?

Disagree. In the Foran season I believe there were a core of experienced senior players who were unhappy at the managerial approach so almost downed tools hoping for changes to occur (we see it often at big EPL clubs etc but oblivious when its happening infront of us). Once that happened unfortunately it was just too late for them to step it up and turn it around. Most then took the chance to leave so never had to deal with the repercussions IMO.

This year has been slightly different with disruptions, covid challenges, managerial uncertainties due to extenuating circumstances. All of which I think has badly affected the players and their confidence and perhaps the stop/start nature coupled with new coaching ideas is just more than most can adapt to quick enough. Decent or talented players dont become poor overnight without other influences and on paper I believe we have some very good individuals (on their day).

2 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

Win on Friday night and we will only be 5pts off 2nd place.  Anything can happen in this league but that was rank tonight, I'm afraid.  

They might play better for the real TV.

3 minutes ago, IBM said:

They might play better for the real TV.

We do seem to play better on when on tv. Queens away and Hearts at home were two of our best performances, so maybe we can hope??

Edited March 9, 20215 yr by Robert

Think we need an awful lot more than hope at the moment.

22 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Agreed but, somehow or other, we need to find a way to rediscover the magic as we are not just any other club.

Hoping. I've got hundreds of memories watching ICT since 1994 but if I go over the past 4 years all I can come up with is Tannadice in the Cup.

What a shambles that was. These guys are just not interested and so far have shown they have no desire to fight for our club. The performances have been a disgrace. I've never seen a team so poor and so limited in skill and ability as this one in all my years supporting the club. Here's hoping we can survive this season and somehow get rid of these **** poor players we have playing for us. Maybe then we can get guys in who will care about playing for ICT.

Unfortunately again losing poor goal putting them on the back foot. Unable to score. Not looking great. Not convinced about the subs and their timing ? Now added pressure of being at the wrong end of the table. The sleeves have really got to get rolled up. Hope Raith are off it Friday or it could be another tough watch. 

42 minutes ago, Jack Waddington said:

Is it too soon to start the #McCannOut campaign?

No and his name is McCant! 

14 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Hoping. I've got hundreds of memories watching ICT since 1994 but if I go over the past 4 years all I can come up with is Tannadice in the Cup.

Least we have the Yogi years, which if it gets really bad going forwards may encourage more fans to look back and realise quite how fortunate we were to be around and enjoy those achievements........then again, maybe not

27 minutes ago, caley100 said:

Think we need an awful lot more than hope at the moment.

True but we have no influence. We need those on the pitch and behind the scenes to get us out of this. 

That's Allardice on six bookings now.

Here's the table. Don't look if you are easily offended.

 

		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1.	Hearts	19	13	3	3	46	21	25	42
2.	Raith Rovers	17	8	4	5	32	24	8	28
3.	Dunfermline	17	7	6	4	26	19	7	27
4.	Queen of the South	19	8	3	8	30	37	-7	27
5.	Dundee	17	6	6	5	31	32	-1	24
6.	Morton	19	5	7	7	17	24	-7	22
7.	Ayr United	18	5	6	7	22	21	1	21
8.	Arbroath	19	5	6	8	17	24	-7	21
9.	Inverness CT	18	4	8	6	25	23	2	20
10.	Alloa Athletic	19	3	5	11	21	42	-21	14

43 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Least we have the Yogi years, which if it gets really bad going forwards may encourage more fans to look back and realise quite how fortunate we were to be around and enjoy those achievements........then again, maybe not

I’d even take the Pele years in div 1. We could beat anybody then. I’m nearly greeting at the state our club is in.

Defensively, the record isn't too bad but if you don't score, or can't score, one goal beats you, as tonight.

 

And if there was one thing for certain about the Pele years, whether we played Celtic or Cowdenbeath, win or lose, we didn't often not score.

8 hours ago, KirkieRobRoy said:

And if there was one thing for certain about the Pele years, whether we played Celtic or Cowdenbeath, win or lose, we didn't often not score.

Didn't we set some kind of record a few years back by going 100+ games without a 0-0 draw?

9 hours ago, IBM said:

They might play better for the real TV.

You may have a point, players trying to put themselves in the shop window for a chance to earn more money and escape.

One big concern was the attitude after we went behind. We had been controlling the game without really troubling Morton but as soon as we conceded. The red could have blown the whistle straight after the goal as it seems the players threw in the towel. One late opportunity over the 35 minutes is all we mustered. 

 

Seriously lacking leaders. It's not a surprise given the age/experience of the team but the seniors we have McKay, Devine, Doran don't strike me as lads that will influence others in a positive manner. This is maybe harsh as I have no evidence of this but it's just how it's looking at the moment.

The problem seems to be one of realism.  The club seems to be deluded that we have a right to be in the top 4. Clearly there has been a major problem with Robbo and his number 2 details of which are confidential.  But currently, the team look devoid of drive, of hunger, of cohesiveness. McCann seemed like a good idea but sadly is yesterday's man with a big ego but little motivational skill. We are not too good to be relegated.

Top four or not, we should still be able to offer a lot more, than the utter dross I have witnessed over the last couple of weeks. 

17 hours ago, IBM said:

They might play better for the real TV.

I am tempted to watch Masterchef !

20 hours ago, WYNESS101 said:

Sutherland started pretty much every game for us this season?

I’ve had a look at the stats on this site. He has 17 appearances. Deas and Ridgers have 20 each, although if I’m reading it right one of Deas’ was off the bench, as was one of Sutherland’s.

As Cammy MacKay has played twice, that must be 22 games so far, and not many wins! Only 4 in the league and squeezing past East Fife in the Betfred Cup.

Incredible what you learn on the stats page. Sean Welsh shares a birthday with my youngest grandson: next Monday, although they are 30 years apart!

Edited March 10, 20215 yr by Robert

9 hours ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

... Clearly there has been a major problem with Robbo and his number 2 details of which are confidential..

 

Clearly?

Do share.